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The Senate of USA approved this Tuesday a legislative initiative to protect at the federal level the marriage between people of the same sex, which will now return to the House of Representatives for its final vote.
The bill went ahead with 61 votes in favor and 36 against.
LOOK HERE: US senators reach an agreement in defense of gay marriage
The legislation encourages the federal government to recognize marriage between two people of the same sex if it is legal in the state where they were married. The same principle applies to interracial weddings.
The text also recognizes religious freedom, avoiding that religious institutions such as Churches can be forced to celebrate these weddings and that they lose benefits or tax exemptions for not doing so.
It also revokes the Law for the Defense of Marriage approved in 1996, which defines it as the union between a man and a woman.
“America’s history has been one of a difficult but inexorable march toward greater equality”indicated Tuesday the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, who warned that “the rights of all married couples will never be truly secure without adequate protections by federal law.”
The House of Representatives, with a progressive majority, gave its endorsement to the bill in July with 267 votes in favor and 157 against. In the Senate, the slim Democratic majority needed the support of at least ten Republicans to pull it off.
After its approval, the text has to return to the Lower House, which must give its approval to the new version that has come out of the Senate, before ending up at President Joe Biden’s table for his signature.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in the United States since June 2015 when the Supreme Court declared laws that prohibited it unconstitutional in some states.
ALSO SEE: State of Mexico approves marriage between two people of the same sex
The mobilization around the defense of these unions recently gained momentum after the Supreme Court, now controlled by a conservative majority, repealed the ruling in June “Roe vs. Wade”which for almost half a century protected access to abortion in the country.
Since then, a large number of activists and progressive politicians have warned of the possibility of the court doing the same with other rights, such as same-sex weddings, returning to states the power to set whether or not to allow it.
While the bill wouldn’t force all states to legalize gay marriage, it would require them to recognize marriage in another state where it was.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
