On Tuesday, President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law, completing his four-decade political career’s personal evolution toward acceptance of gay rights. This law requires federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
Cyndi Lauper and Sam Smith gave musical performances during the elaborate signing ceremony on the South Lawn. Mr. Biden told thousands of supporters and lawmakers that the new law represents a rare instance of bipartisanship when Democrats and Republicans came together.
“My fellow Americans, the journey to this moment has been hard, but those who believe in equality and justice, you never gave up,” Mr. Biden said before signing the law to raucous applause in front of the throng, which White House officials later estimated at 5,300. We completed it, he continued. The work ahead of us will be continued. I swear to you.
The Defense of Marriage Act, which technically established marriage as being between a man and a woman 25 years ago, is officially repealed by the historic law, which was approved by a bipartisan coalition in Congress. The new rule forbids governments from invalidating out-of-state unions on the grounds of sex, race, or ethnicity.
With the beginning of Republican control of the House next month, the gathering on the cold December afternoon with the White House in the background was especially significant for Democratic members, for whom it may have been the final substantial legislative signing of their term.
The signing ceremony showed how much the president has changed when it comes to promoting L.G.B.T.Q. equality, according to Mr. Biden, who was a senator in 1996 and voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act while having second thoughts about allowing gay men and lesbians to serve in the military.
It is also yet another illustration of how, since he entered public life as a junior senator on January 3, 1973, Vice President Biden’s slow maturation as a politician in general has paralleled the development of his own party.
His opinions on topics like gay marriage, abortion, and sentencing reform, which once placed him on the more conservative end of his party’s ideological spectrum, now more closely align with those that have inspired Democrats and even many Republicans over the past few years.
There are still significant ideological divisions throughout the nation. A generation ago, societal and political norms were very different. However, in some areas, new and different majorities are now expressing support for norms that have changed over time, much like the president.
His story parallels that of the nation in many respects.
Mr. Biden, 80, grew up when a large portion of the nation was less accepting of people’s sexual orientations. He frequently sided with those who advocated for bans or prohibitions on gay men and lesbians in the Senate, reflecting the times. He supported one of the biggest setbacks for the equality movement when it came to legislation that limited how homosexuality was taught in classrooms.
Mr. Biden declared he was opposed to “redefining from a civil perspective what constituted marriage” during his 2008 vice presidential debate with Sarah Palin. But according to those close to Mr. Biden, he kept an open mind about the matter and kept a careful eye on how society was evolving around him, steadily shifting his positions.
The head of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization in Washington, Kelley Robinson, said, “I do admire and appreciate that he is someone who can recognize that his ideas were out of date in the past and that he has matured on the matter and is now an active champion and advocate.” Politicians and policymakers need to catch up to where the public is at.
A woman’s freedom to choose whether or not to have an abortion is another issue that Mr. Biden now vehemently supports, despite earlier in his career having some doubts. The president, a devout Catholic, used to openly oppose abortion rights before quietly, though uncomfortably, defending them in the Senate.
Mr. Biden has been adamant in his condemnation of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision since the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the constitutional right to an abortion in June and has repeatedly called for legislation to replace the 50-year-old court precedent with legal protections for women’s right to an abortion.
Additionally, Mr. Biden has modified his opinions on criminal sentencing, a topic that has lately brought Democrats and Republicans closer together. The First Step Act, a bipartisan compromise to change sentencing rules, particularly mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, was signed by President Donald J. Trump in 2018.
The 1994 crime bill, which many in his party today blame for a period of mass incarceration, especially of minorities, was supported by Mr. Biden while he was still a young senator and was the culmination of his support for tough-on-crime legislation. Mr. Biden boasted in a speech at the time that his approach to crime was to “lock the S.O.B.s up.”
His viewpoint has changed. He pledged to repeal the 1994 law’s provisions when he ran for office. Additionally, he has freed individuals who had been held in prison for decades for relatively minor offenses while serving as president. Mr. Biden extended a blanket pardon in October to everyone convicted of the federal offense of simple marijuana possession. He has urged other governors to enact similar marijuana regulations in their states.
Gay marriage, though, is the topic that most exemplifies Mr. Biden’s propensity to adjust to societal and political change. According to polls, public opinion has drastically changed over the past ten years across the political spectrum, with approximately 70 percent of Americans now supporting same-sex marriage rights with all the legal protections afforded to heterosexual couples.
When he stated earlier this year that he was optimistic “Republicans and Democrats can work together to secure the fundamental right of Americans to marry the person they love,” the president was unambiguous in his support for the law he signed on Tuesday.
However, it also reflects a persistent worry that recently won LGBT rights might be under jeopardy. The Supreme Court’s decision to reverse abortion rights, in which Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that decisions defending marriage equality and the right to contraception might be reevaluated using the same reasoning, contributed to the push for the law’s approval.
The legislation’s opponents claimed that it would erode American family values and limit the religious freedoms of those who do not think same-sex marriage is moral.
In order to prevent same-sex weddings nationwide from being declared illegal by a subsequent Supreme Court decision, the new law’s proponents contended that Congress must take proactive measures. In Obergefell v. Hodges, the court held in 2015 that all states must recognize same-sex marriages in the same way they would a marriage between a man and a woman.
The legalization of same-sex unions, which was formerly a contentious political issue, served as the backdrop for a rare display of bipartisanship in Congress, when 61 senators and 258 members of the House voted to send the Respect for Marriage Act to Vice President Biden for his signature.
There was no question that the president would sign it by the time that took place. He was a fierce advocate for homosexual rights and same-sex marriage while running for president in 2020. Numerous L.G.B.T.Q. individuals, notably Pete Buttigieg, have been nominated to positions in his administration. He has been praised as the most pro-equality president ever by certain homosexual rights activists.
Before his boss, President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden publicly declared his support for same-sex unions, upsetting carefully laid arrangements for Mr. Obama’s reelection announcement. Mr. Biden stated that “I am perfectly comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying one another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights,” in a 2012 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
It was an important event, particularly for one of the most well-known Catholic leaders in the country. The marriage bill’s signing on Tuesday is the most recent proof that whatever reservations Mr. Biden may have had in the beginning of his tenure have virtually vanished.
After the House passed the bill last week, Vice President Biden released a statement. “On this day, Jill and I are thinking of the courageous couples and fiercely committed advocates who have fought for decades to secure nationwide marriage equality at the Supreme Court and in Congress,” he said. “We must never give up the struggle for L.G.B.T.Q.I.+ and all Americans’ full equality.”
