On July 19, the House passed H.R. 8494, the Respect for Marriage Act, 267-157 codifying same sex and interracial marriage. 47 Republicans broke with their bigoted, hate-filled party leadership to vote with every single Democrat. Chuck Schumer has been promising to bring the bill up for a vote in the Senate, where it likely has enough Republican support to prevent a filibuster. Yesterday, Texas hate-monger and notorious racist Ted Cruz announced he will vote against it.
Reporting for the Texas Tribune, Stephen Neukam wrote that “On an episode of his podcast Tuesday, Cruz said the bill would be an attack on religious liberties.” He also said he thinks the Supreme Court’s ruling to legalize gay marriage was “clearly wrong.” The other Texas bigot in the Senate, John Cornyn has also announced he will vote against the bill if Schumer brings it to the floor. The only Texas Republican to have voted for the bill in the House was Tony Gonzales, the GOP incumbent representing the most swing district in the state and is most likely to be defeated for the kind of overt bigotry that doesn’t bother Cruz or Cornyn.
Neukam wrote that the Respect for Marriage Act “was motivated by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurrence on the overturning of Roe v. Wade, in which he said the court should reconsider its ruling protecting same-sex marriage.”
“Angling for a vote this month, Democrats are pushing to get Republicans in an uncomfortable position before the November election. ‘This bill without a religious liberty protection would have massive consequences across our country, weaponizing the Biden administration to go and target universities, K-12 schools, social service organizations, churches and strip them all of their tax-exempt status,’ Cruz said on an episode of his podcast The Verdict.”
Some Republican Senators say they are open to the bill— regular suspects like Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), plus Rob Portman (R-OH), whose son is in a gay marriage and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a barely concealed closet queen— but even someone as far to the right as Ron Johnson (R-WI), who is losing his reelection bid, says he may vote for it. [UPDATE: Johnson, an all around bigot, changed his mind and said he's a NO vote.] “Cruz said he and allies,” reported Neukam, “are fighting to keep Republicans from voting for the act. ‘We are having vigorous arguments in the conference about it,’ Cruz said. ‘I and several others are pushing for an amendment to the bill that would be a strong protection of religious liberty… I don’t know if we will succeed in getting the vote on that amendment, and I don’t know how the vote will shake out. I hope it doesn’t pass, but I don’t know what will happen.’”
Meanwhile, increasingly deranged New Jersey Republican Mehmet Oz is promoting incest.
In an OpEd in yesterday’s Washington Post, Susan Collins and Tammy Baldwin called on their colleagues to pass the bill. “Individuals in same-sex and interracial marriages need, and should have, the confidence that their marriages are legal. These loving couples should be guaranteed the same rights and freedoms of every other marriage... The Respect for Marriage Act is a simple, straightforward measure, only four pages in length — it is shorter than this op-ed. The bipartisan legislation would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that allowed states and the federal government to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages validly performed in other states. The Respect for Marriage Act would simply require the federal government to recognize a marriage if the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed. It would guarantee legal marriages are given full faith and credit, regardless of the couple’s sex, race, ethnicity or national origin. This legislation has earned bipartisan support in Congress because it grants same-sex and interracial couples the certainty that they will continue to enjoy the same equal treatment under federal law as all other married couples. Despite being fewer than 500 words, the Respect for Marriage Act has been misunderstood, leading to false assertions and mischaracterizations of its scope. This legislation would not, in fact, legalize or recognize polygamous relationships or marriages. Polygamous marriages are already illegal in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and this bill would not authorize or recognize them. Moreover, religious liberty is a founding tenet of our republic, and the Respect for Marriage Act honors that principle. Our bipartisan legislation leaves intact religious liberties and protections afforded to individuals and organizations under federal law. We recognize that some might need more clarity on this point, and that is why we have worked together with our Senate colleagues to develop clarifying language to the legislation that makes it clear what the Respect for Marriage Act would not do — it will not take away or alter any religious liberty or conscience protections." Incredible that Ted Cruz, who represents over a million LGBTQ Texans, has a problem with that.
