The Passing of the Respect for Marriage Act: What it means

By: Ava Piliang

On November 30,2020 the H.R 8404 otherwise known as the Respect For Marriage Act was previously passed by the house on July 19,2022 on a 267-157 vote and was recently passed by the senate in a 61-36 vote. The senate vote on the Respect for marriage act was an extremely vital vote because the current makeup of the senate is 50-50 with the tie breaking vote being made by vice president Kamala Harris who is a Democrat. The predicted outcome of the senate vote H.R. 8408 was a 50-50 split with the vice president being the tie breaking vote as the senate is currently very polarized along party lines. When votes in the senate were cast it surprised many Americans to discover that the bill had passed by a large majority 61-36 with senators Blunt (R-MO), Burr (R-NC), Capito (R-WV), Collins (R-ME), Ernst (R-IA), King (I-ME), Lummis (R-WY), Murkowski (R-AK), Portman (R-OH), Romney (R-UT), Sullivan (R-AK), Tillis (R-NC), and Young (R-IN) went against what the republican party as a whole is know to stand for. Additionally the passing of H.R. 8404 is extremely vital because the introduction of the bill was a direct response to comments by members of the supreme court stating they want to revisit 2 key supreme court cases Loving v Virginia which protects interracial marriage and Oberfell v Hodges which protects gay marriage. The passing of H.R. 8404 is an extremely significant bill passed by congress that if signed by the president will be vital to the protection of gay marriage. 

Sources 

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/8404/all-info