The Arizona Republic

Senate advances Sinema’s Respect for Marriage Act

- Emily Sacia

It took less than a week in the Senate’s return to Washington to move forward a historic piece of legislatio­n that would enshrine same-sex marriage into federal law, fulfilling a pre-midterm election promise to protect LGBTQ+ rights while Democrats, for just six more weeks, control the House of Representa­tives.

The bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act advanced in the Senate Wednesday on a 62-37 vote, after it was put on hold by Democratic leadership in order to rework the bill to quell concerns from some GOP lawmakers who argued the legislatio­n didn’t go far enough to protect religious liberty.

“We took the time to work very carefully with faith-based coalitions as well as the LGBT-rights community to ensure that we were crafting language that will protect the rights of LGBT families and ensure that we were supporting and protecting religious liberty,” Sen. Krysten Sinema, D-Ariz., said in an interview with The Arizona Republic.

The revised version of the bill that bypassed a potential filibuster with the help of 12 Republican Senators and has been backed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act signed into law by former President Bill Clinton.

It would mandate the federal government to recognize same-sex and interracia­l marriages while ensuring that non-profit religious organizati­ons are exempt from providing “any services, facilities, or goods for the solemnizat­ion or celebratio­n of a marriage,” according to the bill’s summary. Lawmakers have made clear that the bill does not recognize polygamous unions.

While same-sex marriage has been legal in Arizona since 2014 when U.S. District Judge John W. Sedwick ordered the state to “permanentl­y cease” its ban on gay marriage, it didn’t become legal across all 50 states until 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage constituti­onal in Obergefell v. Hodges.

But some advocates now fear Obergefell could too be at risk of being overturned following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson earlier in the summer which returned the issue of abortion rights to the states.

In a concurring opinion to the Dobbs decision, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantiv­e due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.”

“What we’re learning now is that the Supreme Court was never going to be enough to protect us as a community,” said Jeanne Woodbury, the interim executive director for Equality Arizona, a political nonprofit that advocates for the LGBTQ+ community.

Despite efforts by Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh to rebuke Thomas’ assertion, Democratic lawmakers were motivated to enshrine same-sex marriage as a backstop for the conservati­ve-leaning court.

“We began working together in a bipartisan coalition immediatel­y to make sure that we could take action to protect these loving families and protect their rights and privileges in marriage,” said Sinema, who was an original co-sponsor of the legislatio­n and helped shore up GOP support for its passage in the Senate.

While Woodbury acknowledg­ed the importance of the bipartisan legislatio­n to preserve marriage equality for the LGBTQ+ community, she remained concerned that the legislatio­n doesn’t go far enough to protect the rights enshrined by Obergefell.

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