This is how Centre County’s US House reps voted on the federal same-sex marriage bill
Forty-seven Republican House members joined Democrats in voting in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would federally protect same-sex marriages. Centre County’s representatives were not among them.
Introduced by New York Democrat Rep. Jerrold Nadler on Monday, H.R. 8404 would codify federal protections for same-sex couples, which were determined when the U.S. Supreme Court established same-sex marriages were a right under the 14th Amendment in its 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
The act would repeal a law that defines marriage as a heterogeneous relationship between a man and a woman, the Associated Press reported, and it would also provide legal protections for interracial marriages. The act would prohibit states from denying out-of-state marriage licenses and benefits on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity or national origin, the AP reported.
During the roll call vote on Tuesday, the House passed the legislation 267-157; 47 Republicans joined Democrats in supporting it. Republican representatives for Centre County, Glenn Thompson, R-Howard, and Fred Keller, R-Kreamer, voted against the bill.
When reached for comment, Keller said the bill “deals in issues that are best left to the states.”
“It is not the role of Congress to legislate and control all aspects of Americans’ daily lives. The Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges recognized a legal right to same-sex marriage and gave those marriages legal rights in every state. HR 8404 deals in issues that are best left to the states, where Americans have direct representation to have their voices heard,” Keller said in an emailed statement.
Maddison Stone, press secretary for Thompson, said the bill was just a “messaging stunt” for Democrats.
“This bill was nothing more than an election-year messaging stunt for Democrats in Congress who have failed to address historic inflation and out of control prices at gas pumps and grocery stores,” Stone said in an email.
The Respect for Marriage Act comes after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending constitutional protections for abortion in the United States. In Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion in that ruling, he wrote that Obergefell and other similar cases should be reconsidered.
If the Supreme Court were to decide that same-sex marriages are not a constitutionally protected right by overturning Obergefell, such unions would become illegal in at least 25 states, according to PolitiFact, and it would likely become illegal in seven others.
No other Supreme Court Justices signed Thomas’s opinion. In the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote “nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”
The legislation now heads to the Senate, where its future is uncertain.
