United States President, Joe Biden, has signed a bill granting federal protections to same-sex marriage in the country into law.
Biden, who as Vice President took a public stand in favour of same-sex unions well before they became legal throughout the United States in a 2015 Supreme Court decision, touted the landmark law as a rights victory.
“America takes a vital step toward equality, for liberty and justice, not just for some, but for everyone,” he said during the signing ceremony at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.
After the US Supreme Court – now significantly more conservative – overturned longstanding abortion rights last June, lawmakers from the left and right came together to prevent any subsequent move to curb same-sex marriage rights.
The legislation’s final adoption by Congress last week marked a rare show of bipartisanship in deeply divided Washington.
In celebration, Biden gathered with a group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the White House grounds, along with advocates and plaintiffs in marriage equality cases across the country.
Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay US senator, said she was “overcome with joy” at the signing of the law, which she helped draft in Congress.
“Today, we are making history and making a difference for millions of Americans.
“We are telling the millions of same-sex and interracial couples that we see them and we respect them,” she said in a statement.
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The legislation, White House spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre, on Monday, said: “will give peace of mind to millions of LGBTQI+ and interracial couples who will finally be guaranteed the rights and protections to which they and their children are entitled.”
Jean-Pierre herself made history as the first openly gay White House press secretary.
Hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples have married since the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision legalising unions throughout the United States.
Public acceptance has grown dramatically in recent decades, with polls now showing a strong majority of Americans supporting same-sex marriage.
But some conservatives and the religious right remain opposed.
The new legislation, known as the Respect for Marriage Act, does not mandate states to legalise same-sex marriage but does require them to recognise a marriage so long as it was valid in the state where it was performed.
It repeals previous legislation defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and also protects interracial couples by requiring states to recognise legal marriages without regard to “sex, race, ethnicity or national origin”.
In the House of Representatives, 39 Republicans joined a united Democratic majority in supporting the bill, while 169 Republicans voted against it.
It was previously adopted in the evenly split Senate by 61 votes to 36.
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