United States: the House of Representatives approves a law to protect same-sex marriage
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi holds her weekly news conference with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, U.S., July 14, 2022. REUTERS - ELIZABETH FRANTZ
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The US House of Representatives on Tuesday (July 19) approved a bill to protect same-sex marriage, following the Supreme Court's decision last month to overturn Roe v.
Wade.
Judge Clarence Thomas had mentioned a possible re-examination of certain judgments which guarantee the right to contraception and same-sex marriage.
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Following the reversal of Roe v.
Wade,
who ended the constitutional right to abortion
, Democrats are concerned about the possible next decisions of the Supreme Court.
So when the House of Representatives approved a bill on Tuesday to protect same-sex marriage, the vote was welcomed in the hemicycle as well as outside, in front of the Congress precincts.
This law, passed at a run, repeals the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
It prohibits civil registrars from discriminating between homosexual couples and, by the way, interracial couples.
All Democrats voted for this text behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"
With this historic Respect for Marriage Act, we are ensuring that marriage equality remains the law of the land now and for generations to come
," she said.
Only 47 Republicans supported this law.
157 others opposed it, like Mike Johnson, elected from Louisiana.
“
We live in an extraordinarily divided time.
Reopening this case, which is not threatened by any legislative or judicial body anywhere, looks more like an attempt by Democrats to stoke fear before the November election rather than bring the country together.
»
It is therefore a few months before these mid-term elections that the Republican elected members of the Senate will now have to decide on this subject which divides their electorate.
The Democrats need the support of 10 of them.
For the time being, only a Republican senator has declared herself ready to vote for the text.
► To read also: Abortion in the United States: the regression
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