A VITAL STEP TOWARDS EQUALITY
US President Joe Biden signs The Respect for Marriage Act, 2022. For millions of LGBTQI+ Americans and interracial couples, this is a major victory
WE live in global dark times, but those immersed in the now time and near future still believe in the idiom or the cliché that every dark cloud has a silver lining—an expression of hope in dark times of doom-saying. It was John Milton who probably used this phrase first: “Here does a sable cloud/Turn forth her silver lining on the night/And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.”1 The quest for the silver lining continues as lethal sovereignties worldwide proliferate practices of corrupt and violent politics, often with total impunity.
The Respect for Marriage Act, 2022, (RFMA) passed by the US Congress and signed into law on December 12, 2022, offers several silver linings in an otherwise darkening landscape. RFMA inaugurally enshrines same-sex and interracial marriages into federal law and allows the government to bring a civil lawsuit against anyone who violates the statutory rights of gay, lesbian or interracial couples. It also notably repeals the 1996 federal law, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which once defined marriage as between a man and a woman.
In addition, it accomplishes several things. First, it shows that bipartisanship in legislation is still possible even in the polarised politicking of the US amidst Trumpian dystopic dreams and nightmares. Democrats were joined by 12 Republican senators and 39 GOP representatives to pass the Bill.
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