US: Senate passes law protecting same-sex marriage nationwide

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The text was approved with 61 votes against 36 – In addition to the Democrats (except for one absentee), 12 Republicans were in favor.

The US Senate on Tuesday approved a law that would protect same-sex marriage across the US, amid concerns that the Supreme Court would step in and take the country backwards.

The text was approved with 61 votes to 36. In addition to the Democrats (except for one absentee), 12 Republicans were in favor.

“The United States is on the verge of reaffirming a fundamental truth: love is love, and American men and women should be able to marry whomever they love,” was the reaction of US President Joe Biden, according to a press release. made public by his services.

The House of Representatives had already approved a similar text in July, supported by all of its Democratic members and 47 Republican members. He will speak next week on the amended text, before the two versions are harmonized, which is expected to be a mere formality.

After it is finally adopted by the lower House, the law will reach the desk of Mr. Biden, who has pledged to sign it “immediately.”

“After months of hard work, after cross-party ferment, after doubts, we took a decisive step toward more justice for LGBTQ Americans,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, for whom the issue is “personal”: his daughter is married to her partner.

Same-sex marriage has been guaranteed by the U.S. Supreme Court since 2015. But after the historic reversal, overturning the right to abortion — after half a century — in June, many progressives in the U.S. feared they would join the their turn in the crosshairs of the conservative majority of America’s top judicial institution.

“Historic Progress”

The new law overturns precedents that defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman, while prohibiting public officials, regardless of state in which they hold office, from discriminating against couples “because of their sex, race, ethnicity or of their origin”. The text also applies to same-sex couples.

“Today’s (yet yesterday’s) vote has very personal implications for many of us in this constituency,” Mr Schumer, who chose to wear the same tie he wore to his daughter’s wedding to her partner.

The powerful civil and civil rights group ACLU yesterday hailed the bill’s passage, calling it “historic progress” for the rights of LGBTQI+ families, but at the same time decrying laws that hurt transgender (or transgender) people’s rights in states across the world. country.

“While we welcome the historic vote on this measure, members of Congress must also fight as if transgender lives depended on it, because that is exactly what is happening,” the organization said in a press release.

A large majority of Americans support same-sex marriage, including Republicans. But the religious right is against it.

According to the US Census, there are approximately 568,000 married same-sex couples in the country.

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