The Laws of Love

Wedding Day

It looked like Pride in December as the president signed a bill fending off right-wing efforts to overturn marriage equality.

BY TRUDY RING

“TODAY’S A GOOD DAY,” Biden said as he stepped before the audience outside the White House. He recalled when he first came out for marriage equality 10 years ago, when he was vice president. “I want to thank all of you for being here today,” he told those in attendance, citing Vice President Kamala Harris, First Lady Jill Biden, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Biden praised those who pushed through the legislation, including Sens. Tammy Baldwin, Susan Collins, Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, and others, and out U.S. Reps. David Cicilline and Sharice Davids as well as allies like U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler and especially outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The president said he was thinking of Richard and Mildred Loving, whose case won the right to interracial marriage in all states at the Supreme Court in 1967. He also noted all the couples and individuals who fought for the right to same-sex marriage, such as the late Edie Windsor, who fought the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal recognition to her marriage to Thea Spyer. “Today we celebrate our progress,” he said.

Biden condemned anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that is being introduced and passed in states around the nation and Justice Clarence Thomas’s stated desire for the Supreme Court to reverse its marriage equality ruling. He noted that racism, homophobia, transphobia, and anti-Semitism are all connected.

He went on to celebrate the fact that out WNBA superstar Brittney Griner has been freed from a Russian prison (see page 36) and said he got to know her wife, Cherelle Griner, while working for Brittney’s release. Then he signed the bill into law to cheers throughout the audience. As he stepped up from the desk he signed the legislation on, Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” played.

The Respect for Marriage Act will assure that the federal government recognizes same-sex and interracial marriages and that all states recognize those performed in other states. It forbids anyone acting under a state law to discriminate based on the gender or race of a married couple. It repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, which has been unenforceable since the Supreme Court rulings in Windsor v. U.S. (2013) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) but remained on the books. DOMA, passed by Congress in 1996, banned federal recognition of same-sex marriages and allowed states to deny recognition to those performed in other states.

The impetus for the legislation came after Supreme Court Justice Thomas said the court should overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the ruling that established marriage equality nationwide. The statement came in his concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which struck down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion in all states. There is no case currently making its way through the courts challenging Obergefell, but Thomas and other conservatives have made clear they would welcome one.

“This is a big day for me, but not just me,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing. Jean-Pierre is the first out queer person to serve as press secretary. “I think I speak for many of us at the White House today that we could not be prouder to be working for this administration, to be working for this particular president, and to be working on all the issues that are going to change Americans’ lives, as we have seen historic legislation over the last 22 months.”

President Joe Biden signs the Respect for Marriage Act on the South Lawn of the White House on December 13, 2022, in Washington, DC. The Respect for Marriage Act codifies same-sex and interracial marriages. DREW ANGERER/ GETTY /IMAGES