Share and Follow
President Biden Signs Same-Sex Marriage Bill And Attacked Supreme Court- What Happened?
President Joe Biden signed a bill guaranteeing same-sex and interracial marriage at a White House event with Cyndi Lauper and Sam Smith. He then slammed the “extreme” Supreme Court for endangering liberties and vowed to defend transgender youngsters threatened by “cynical” Republican policies.
Read Also: Mother pleads not guilty to alleged murders in court
He attacked GOP-led initiatives to get the government involved in gender-affirming care for youngsters, which have increased 13-fold in the previous decade, in front of a gathering of drag queens and LGBTQ rights supporters.
Biden said, “We need to fight the hundreds of heartless and cynical laws enacted in the states that target transgender children, terrorizing families and criminalizing doctors who provide the care we need for the children.” “We need to keep these kids safe so they can feel loved,” someone said.
Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly said that other rulings based on the Roe v. Wade precedent should be reexamined, including the 2015 landmark gay marriage decision Obergefell v. Hodges, according to Biden, who argued that the Respect for Marriage Act was necessary.
Biden told the large gathering, “So regretfully, I must acknowledge another reason we’re here.”
Because the Supreme Court’s extreme rulings have denied millions of Americans rights that have been in place for fifty years, Congress is taking action.
President Joe Biden attacked the ‘extreme’ Supreme Court for threatening rights as he signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law in a ceremony on the South Lawn Tuesday with Sam Smith and Cyndi Lauper
Singer Sam Smith performs their hit Stay with Me during a bill signing ceremony for the Respct for Marriage Act
Icon Cyndi Lauper performed her song True Colors on the White House South Lawn Tuesday
Biden said he wished to still sign the Equality Act, which would ensure LGBTQ Americans with even greater protections, including in the workplace.
“This is still wrong,” the president declared, “when a person can be married in the morning and kicked out of a restaurant in the afternoon.”
The recent shooting in Colorado, when the alleged shooter allegedly targeted an LGBTQ nightclub and identified as non-binary, was also mentioned by Biden.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, the suspect, is charged with five counts of murder and one count of committing a hate crime for firing an AR-15-style weapon early on November 19.
He declared, “We must put an end to the hate and violence as we just seen in Colorado Springs.”
According to Biden, approving the same-sex marriage law was an act of defiance against all forms of intolerance.
‘Folks, racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia. They’re all connected. But the antidote to hate is love,’ Biden said. ‘This law and the law that defends strike a blow against hate in all its forms.’
Biden’s guest list included a number of prominent drag queens, who confirmed their attendance on social media.
Drag queen Marti Gould Cummings shared their invitation on Instagram.
“I never thought I’d be welcomed to the White House as a non-binary drag performer. I appreciate the invitation to this historic law signing from the President and Dr. Biden. Grateful isn’t even close to capturing how I feel, Cummings wrote.
Brita Filter, a contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race’s 12th season, interjected and stated she was also invited.
Sam Smith and Cyndi Lauper both gave performances before Biden’s stirring speech.
Stay with Me, their popular ballad, was played by Smith, then True Colors by Lauper was performed. As soon as Biden signed the law, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way started playing loudly over the speakers.
A drag queen in the audience poses for a photo before the ceremony on the White House’s South Lawn on Tuesday afternoon
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten watch as Biden signed the bill into law
Aparna Shrivastava, right, takes a photo with her partner Shelby Teeter after Biden signed the act into law
He did so with plaintiffs from previous same-sex marriages court cases lining the White House’s stairs and surrounded by Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
Biden thanked Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat and lesbian, for being ‘a real hero,’ while also crediting Republican Sen. Susan Collins for getting the bill across the line.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who spoke at the top of the program, talked about how the legislation was ‘personal’ to him.
‘The tie that I’m wearing reminds me what this moment is all about,’ the New York Democrat said. ‘It’s the tie I ore the day my daughter got married to a beautiful young lady,’ he added, nothing that his daughter Alison is expected with wife Elizabeth.
Schumer gave a shout-out to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, despite her announcement to leave th Democratic Party on Friday. She’ll still caucus with the Democrats.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will step down from her top leadership post at the start of the year, received raucous cheers.
She recalled how she signed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell as one of her last act when she originally signed as House speaker between 2007 and 2011.
Plaintiffs from previous same-sex marriages court cases lined the White House’s stairs at the Respect for Marriage Act signing ceremony Tuesday
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who spoke at the top of the program, talked about how the legislation was ‘personal’ to him as he has a lesbian daughter who is married and expecting a child with her wife
‘We tossed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell into the dustbin of history,’ she cheered.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell didn’t allow gay people to serve openly in the U.S. military.
‘It’s fitting that one of my final act of speakership was to sign the Respect for Marriage Act,’ she noted.
Though Pelosi also said she wanted Congress to still pass the Equality Act, which the House passed, but it fizzled in the U.S. Senate.
Vice President Kamala Harris recalled her Valentine’s Day week of 2004. ‘When I had the honor to stand in San Francisco city hall and perform some of our country’s first marriages of same-sex couples,’ she said.
‘Let us think about today, December 13, 2022, a day when thanks to Democrats and Republicans we finally protect marriage rights in federal law,’ Harris said.
As Biden wrapped up his own remarks, he reflected on the recent release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and how he had gotten to know Griner’s wife Cherelle.
Cherelle Griner had said, Biden recalled, ‘Today my family is whole.’
‘My fellow Americans, that all-consuming, life altering, love of commitment, that’s marriage,’ Biden said.
Attendees at the White House’s signing ceremony for the Respect for Marriage Act
Hosue Speaker Nancy Pelosi, flanked by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (right), addresses the crowd at the signing ceremony Tuesday afternoon for the Respect for Marriage Act
Directly before the ceremony, Lauper made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room.
‘We can rest easy tonight because our families are validated. Because now we’re allowed to love somebody, which sounds odd to say, but Americans can now love who we love,’ said Lauper, a longtime ally of the LGBTQ community, who will perform at the afternoon ceremony.
‘And bless Joe Biden and all the people that worked on this for allowing people not to worry and their children not to worry about their future,’ Lauper continued.
The longtime pop star has violet bleached hair and wore a black pantsuit over a black shirt adorned with rhinestones.
‘So I brought a friend with me, who is an icon really, she doesn’t need any introduction,’ said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, ushering Lauper to the podium.
Pop star Cyndi Lauper made a surprise appearance Tuesday in the White House briefing room ahead of President Joe Biden signing the Respect for Marriage Act in the South Lawn
‘We can rest easy tonight because our families are validated. Because now we’re allowed to love somebody, which sounds odd to say, but Americans can now love who we love,’ Lauper told reporters from the White House podium
‘Bless Joe Biden and all the people that worked on this for allowing people not to worry and their children not to worry about their future,’ Lauper said
President Joe Biden will sign the Respect for Marriage Act Tuesday afternoon in a ceremony attended by thousands on the White House South Lawn. The White House was lit up in rainbow colors after in June 2015 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage
Marti Gould Cummings (left) and Brita Filter were invited to the White House for the ceremony (right). Drag performers have been attacked by right-wing organizations and used as political pawns by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis this summer, so the Biden administration is demonstrating its support for them.
Both Cummings and Filter have entertained children, with Cummings frequently presenting kid-friendly performances in progressive neighborhoods like Provincetown, Massachusetts.
When Filter performed her drag show and subsequently spoke about queerness with a group of students from the progressive independent Episcopal school in the East Village, she received some criticism for her performance at a “Pride Chapel” in April.
According to The New York Post, some conservative students expressed their discomfort with the dancing and twerking in a religious environment.
After Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who may challenge Biden for the White House in 2024, attempted to turn drag shows into a cultural issue earlier this year, Biden decided to support drag queens.
In response to a video showing a young person in the audience of a Florida drag brunch in which one of the queens was exhibiting her naked, but obviously false, huge breasts, DeSantis announced that he would be making a complaint.
A video posted by the liberal Libs of TikTok account shows the queen covering her breasts as she notices a toddler in the front row.
The post stated, “This is what a “family-friendly drag show” in a bar looks like.”
Late in July, DeSantis stated at a press conference that “getting kids participate in this is unacceptable.” That is not in accordance with our legislation and policy in the state of Florida,’ he said, implying that the R House restaurant in Miami’s Wynwood district would lose its liquor license.
The restaurant’s owners described it as a “misunderstanding” in a statement.
The White House’s support also comes at a time when hard-right organizations like the Patriot Front and the Proud Boys have targeted drag queens and LGBTQ-friendly businesses.
Five people were slain last month in Colorado Springs, Colorado, when a shooter barged into Club Q during a drag show and began firing.
That came after the June 2016 attack at the LGBTQ nightclub Pulse in Orlando, which left 49 people dead.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre teased that there would be musical guests and entertainment at the South Lawn event while previewing the bill signing from the podium on Monday, but she wouldn’t give reporters more information than that.
In a concurring opinion to Dobbs, which overruled Roe v. Wade in June, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas stated that other cases based on the precedent established in Roe should be reconsidered, including the 2015 landmark gay marriage decision Obergefell v. Hodges.
The Defense of Marriage Act, a piece of law from the Clinton administration that forbade government recognition of same-sex unions, has now formally repealed by the Respect for Marriage Act.
Parts of Obergefell and the significant 1967 case Loving v. Virginia are codified, requiring the federal government to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages.
With the support of 47 Republicans, the bill was approved by the House of Representatives in July.
The bill had more difficulty getting through the Senate, where 60 votes are needed for cloture, but eventually 12 Republicans signed on.
The bill passed the Senate last month after amendments were added to bolster religious protections and clarify that it did not legalize polygamous marriages.
The House then passed the updated version on Thursday.
