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Senate finally passes Respect for Marriage Act, provides federal protections for everyone's unions [1]

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Date: 2022-11-29

The Senate passed the Respect for Marriage Act Tuesday afternoon in a 61-36 vote, after easily defeating three trollish Republican amendments. The legislation will provide federal protections to same-sex and interracial marriages—that is, once the House passes it again, because the Senate made changes in order to get bipartisan support that added a lot of redundant and superfluous “religious freedom” stuff.

The new law will repeal the horrible 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined a marriage for federal purposes as between one man and one woman, allowing states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages from other states and to discriminate against those couples. With DOMA still lurking, held at abeyance by a couple of Supreme Court decisions that are in jeopardy of being overturned, the protections for same-sex couples’ unions were threatened when it comes to things like adoption, wills, health insurance, financial arrangements—all sorts of daily life issues that heterosexual couples take for granted.

One of the key things that RFMA will put into law is the many federal protections that only exist by executive order. Former President Barack Obama extended those protections across a range of federal programs, including health care, immigration, labor, military service, and Social Security. Those protections could easily have been rescinded by a Republican president. That can’t happen now. Or at least, not after the House passes it, which could happen “as soon as Tuesday” of next week, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said.

RELATED: Senate Republicans are going to finally have to vote on marriage equality

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/29/2139090/-Senate-finally-passes-Respect-for-Marriage-Act-provides-federal-protections-for-everyone-s-unions

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