Joe Biden signs marriage law in the US - it depends on who you love
Created: 12/14/2022 10:44 am
By: Daniel Dillman
In the USA, the federal government under Joe Biden is forcing the individual states by law to recognize same-sex marriage.
Washington DC - US President Joe Biden has signed into law a new law protecting same-sex marriage in the United States.
According to several news agencies, the ratification took place on Tuesday (local time) in the capital Washington DC.
According to US President Joe Biden, the new law should protect same-sex marriage nationwide.
Individual states must therefore recognize same-sex marriages concluded in other states of the USA.
Since 2014, same-sex marriage has been legalized in 19 out of 50 states.
In 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is generally legal in the United States.
Joe Biden: Same-sex marriage 'without government interference'
From now on, when choosing a spouse, it no longer depends on who you love, said Joe Biden shortly after the law was signed.
Everyone must be able to decide that “without interference from the government”.
The House of Representatives passed the law by a vote of 258 to 169 last week.
The Senate voted in favor of the law in late November.
The Democrats still have a majority in both chambers.
US President Joe Biden is rolling out legislation to protect same-sex marriage in the United States.
© Drew Angerer/afp
Sections of US politics, especially within the Republicans, reject same-sex marriage.
Supporters of marriage for all have been deeply unsettled since the Supreme Court's June 2022 decision against abortion rights.
Conservative representatives of the Supreme Court, such as Donald Trump's judge Brett Kavanaugh, had said the court could now also review the judgment on same-sex marriage.
This, in turn, prompted the government under Joe Biden to introduce legislation to protect marriage.
Majority of US for same-sex marriage
Joe Biden and the Democrats know that a clear majority of the US population is on their side in the discussion about same-sex marriages.
According to the Pew Research Center in November 2022, 61 percent of Americans believe that same-sex marriage is good for society.
Joe Biden himself, as a convinced Catholic, is not necessarily a supporter of the concept.
In 1996, however, as a Delaware state senator, he voted against a "Marriage Defense Act" endorsed by then-Democratic President Bill Clinton, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
In 2012, 16 years later, Biden declared that same-sex couples should not be discriminated against.
(dil/dpa/epd)
