Georgia
Georgia activists eager for federal bill protecting same-sex marriage to become law
How would Respect for Marriage Act affect Georgia?
Households mentioned the invoice offers consolation that same-sex and interracial marriages are acknowledged beneath federal legislation. A legislation professor mentioned the invoice wouldn’t power states to permit same-sex marriages, however would power them to acknowledge authorized unions even when the Supreme Court docket overrules a 2015 choice.
ATLANTA – A invoice that might shield same-sex marriage is working its manner via Congress. The U.S. Senate handed the proposal with bipartisan help Tuesday evening, and it’s anticipated to change into legislation.
The Senate invoice would guarantee same-sex and interracial marriages are protected beneath federal legislation.
Jeff Graham, is the Govt Director of the LGBTQ advocacy group Georgia Equality. Graham mentioned the measure would supply stable ensures to guard marriage equality right here in Georgia.
“It’s an amazing invoice,” Graham mentioned. “We might not lose these federal protections. It does shore up that the federal authorities will all the time acknowledge same-sex and interracial marriages.”
The proposal gained final summer time when the U.S. Supreme Court docket overturned the federal proper to an abortion. Justice Clarence Thomas, in his concurring opinion, recommended same-sex marriage could possibly be beneath menace.
Timothy Holbrook, a legislation professor at Emory College, says the laws wouldn’t power states to permit same-sex {couples} to marry. However the invoice would require all states to acknowledge all marriages that had been authorized the place they had been carried out even when the excessive court docket had been to overturn the Obergefell v. Hodges choice, which grants marriage equality.
“If it’s signed into legislation, it does create protections for his or her marriages, present ones and future ones within the occasion the Supreme Court docket decides to overrule same-sex marriage equality,” Holbrook mentioned. “If a pair will get married in a state the place same-sex marriage is authorized, each state should acknowledge that marriage inside their very own territory.”
Rashaun Lemp, who raises a teenage son and a toddler daughter together with his husband Chris, is gratified the senate handed a invoice.
“It additionally offers us consolation that our union shall be acknowledged,” Kemp mentioned. “It offers is a way of safety and reduction.”
The invoice strikes onto the home, the place it’s anticipated to move. It could them go to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.