The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed landmark legislation cementing federal protections for same-sex and interracial unions, with a dozen Republican senators joining the Democrats to pull the marriage equality bill across the line. The Respect for Marriage Act, which was approved 61-36, will now return to the House for a final vote, where it is expected to be approved as early as next week, and sent to President Joe Biden’s desk. The legislation requires states to recognize marriages as legal as long as they were valid in the state in which the ceremony was performed. It also repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a Clinton-era law preventing the government from recognizing same-sex marriages, which remains on the books despite being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2015. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who choked up as he spoke after the vote of his own daughter, who is expecting a baby with her wife, said the legislation was “a long time coming.”
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