US Senate approves gay marriage law

61 senators, including 12 Republicans, voted for the corresponding bill in the USA. There were 36 votes against. The bill, dubbed the Respect for Marriage Act, must now be passed by the House of Representatives before President Joe Biden can sign the law into law. The second chamber of Congress is still dominated by the Democrats this year.

With the “cross-party adoption of the law” a “fundamental truth” will soon be reaffirmed, Biden said after the vote. “Love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love.”

The Supreme Court, the highest court in the USA, had already established the right of same-sex couples to marry in a historic judgment in 2015. But after the court, which in recent years has consisted mostly of conservative judges, abolished the country’s basic right to abortion, which had been in force for almost 50 years, fears grew that same-sex marriage could also be in danger. In a commentary on the abolition of the basic right to an abortion, the arch-conservative constitutional judge Clarence Thomas also questioned the fundamental judgment on same-sex marriage.

Among other things, the law stipulates that all states must recognize marriages that were entered into and are valid in another state. A law already classified as unconstitutional, which defines marriage as a bond between a man and a woman, will also be deleted.

A large majority of the US population — more than 70 percent, according to a summer poll — supports same-sex marriage. The religious right, however, is firmly opposed.

se/fw (afp, ap, dpa)