On the one-year anniversary of President Joe Biden’s signing of the Respect for Marriage Act, the Democratic National Committee criticized former President Donald Trump and other Republicans for their views on marriage equality in a speech on Wednesday:
“The historic Respect for Marriage Act, which reaffirms that love is love and defends every American’s right to marry in the face of threats from the MAGA movement, was signed into law by President Biden one year ago today after Donald Trump appointed and celebrated far-right extremist judges who were willing to undermine 50 years of law and rip apart Americans’ rights,” according to DNC National Press Secretary Sarafina Chitika.
She continued, “The choice next November couldn’t be more clear: President Biden’s plan to pass the Equality Act and guarantee rights and freedoms for all Americans, or Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans’ agenda to undermine our liberties, harbor hate, and enable discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community,” adding that “when they continue to demonize the gay community, we must believe them.”
Trump has spoken out against same-sex marriage frequently over the past 20 years, even though he has not directly weighed in on the Respect for Marriage Act.
“Most people believe it can’t at this point, but I would have loved to see the states make the decision, Lou, and let it be that way. If something can happen” to overturn the ruling,” he told Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs in 2015, after the U.S. Supreme Court established the constitutional right of LGBTQ couples to wed.
Trump pledged in June to “once again appoint rock-solid conservative judges in the mold of judges like Antonin Scalia and the great Clarence Thomas” if he is reelected the following year, after naming three right-wing judges who voted to overturn the high court’s law protecting abortion access during his first term.
Thomas expressed his support for revisiting decisions on same-sex marriage, contraception, and the repeal of sodomy laws in his concurring opinion in the abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
In fact, this viewpoint encouraged attempts to pass the Respect for Marriage Act in order to prevent a backlash against the court’s decision to establish the legal right to marriage equality across the country.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a presidential candidate who is polling closely behind Trump in studies of likely GOP primary voters, told Fox host Laura Ingraham that the bipartisan group of politicians who supported the Respect for Marriage Act were “using the authority, I think, of the federal government in a way that will definitely put religious institutions in hard places.”
The Congressional Equality Caucus and House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-California) made separate statements to commemorate the anniversary on Capitol Hill.
The Respect for Marriage Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law a year ago, is “a triumph of passion, liberty, and justice for all,” according to Pelosi.
“This law requires states to recognize same-sex marriages that are legal in the place where they were performed and threw the biased Defense of Marriage Act into the trash of history,” according to a Democratic supermajority on the Supreme Court that explicitly sought marriage justice, she said. “This marriage-protective law bears my name as one of the last bills I signed while serving as Speaker of Congress, and I do so with great personal satisfaction.”
This law, according to Congressional Equality Caucus Chair Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), “demonstrates what’s possible when Democrats and Republicans come together to do what is right and protect the rights of LGBTQI+ people.”
He continued, “Unfortunately, since this bill became law, extremist politicians have introduced a barrage of anti-equality bills at both the state and federal levels, demonstrating that progress isn’t always linear. As we commemorate today’s significant anniversary, we must all recommit to defending the rights of LGBTQI+ citizens, especially the transgender community, every day.”
