Biden signs federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriage into law

Hunter

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday December 13, 2022 · 2:13 PM PST

2022/12/13 · 14:13

President Joe Biden takes his sunglasses off before putting them right back on as he speaks during an event to celebrate the Tampa Bay Lightning's 2020 and 2021 Stanley Cup championships at the White House, Monday, April 25, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

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Put it in the history books. Today President Joe Biden signed his name to the Respect for Marriage Act, legislation that enshrines federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages into law.

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The bill was passed by the Democratic-held Senate in late November, and given final House approval one week ago. It repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a law that obliged the federal government to define marriage as between a man and woman.

The new law is intended as a response to Republican attacks on marriage rights and to recent hard-right Supreme Court decisions, including the overturning of federal abortion rights, laced with language suggesting other privacy-based protections might soon fall. The Biden-signed law does not oblige states to recognize same-sex marriages, but does require the federal government to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages in federal health, labor, immigration, military, and Social Security regulations. Many of those protections existed due only to presidential executive orders; now, they are the law of the land.

The White House ceremony, which hosted hundreds, concluded with the playing of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way."

House passes marriage equality law, protecting it from the radical Trump-packed Supreme Court

Biden signs federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriage into law

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