By Summer Concepcion —
NBC News
President Joe Biden will sign this Tuesday at the White House the law that establishes federal protection for same-sex marriages, approved last week by Congress thanks to the Democratic majority and with the support of some Republicans.
Also expected to attend are Vice President Kamala Harris;
the first lady, Jill Biden;
and the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff.
The law was pushed by a bipartisan group led by Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay person elected to the Senate.
It will ensure that the federal government recognizes marriages and guarantees all benefits "regardless of the couple's sex, race, ethnicity or national origin."
However, it will not force states to issue marriage licenses contrary to state law.
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Last week, the House of Representatives approved the law by 258 votes in favor and 169 against;
the Senate had validated it at the end of last month by 61 votes in favor and 36 against.
Democrats voted unanimously in favor of the bill, while a majority of Republicans in both houses opposed it.
The bill was revised by Baldwin in an effort to win some Republican votes, with language saying religious organizations would not be required to perform same-sex marriages and the federal government would not be required to protect polygamous marriages.
Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed an earlier version of the bill, after Democratic leaders raised concerns that the Supreme Court could rule on striking down the right of same-sex couples to marry. marriage, after his decision to annul the case Roe v.
Wade in June.
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Democrats pointed to Justice Clarence Thomas' concurring opinion in the high court's ruling, calling on the court's conservative majority to also review landmark decisions that legalized the right to contraception and same-sex marriage.
The legislation comes at a time when state lawmakers have proposed a record number of bills that would limit the rights of LGBTQ people in recent years.
It also comes amid widespread anti-LGBTQ rhetoric led by rightists and a series of attacks on the community, including the deadly shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, last month.
Biden's signing of the law comes a decade after he publicly spoke out in favor of same-sex marriage, despite earlier voting to block its federal recognition.
“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men who marry men, women who marry women, and heterosexual men and women who marry others have exactly the same rights, all the civil rights, all the liberties civilians," Biden said during an interview on NBC News in 2012, "and frankly, I don't see much of a distinction beyond that."
