America
The text also recognizes religious freedom, preventing religious institutions such as churches from being forced to celebrate these weddings.
The United States Congress approved this Thursday a bill that protects same-sex marriage at the federal level and protects it from discrimination in the event that the Supreme Court decides to revoke that right. The House of Representatives, with a Democratic majority, validated it by 258 votes in favor and 169 againstafter the Senate had ruled along the same lines on November 29 with 61 positive votes and 36 negative votes.
The bill must now be ratified by the president of the country, Joe Bidenso that it can come into force. The legislation encourages the federal government to recognize marriage between two people of the same sex if it is legal in the state where the marriage was contracted.
The text also recognizes the religious freedompreventing religious institutions such as churches from being forced to celebrate these weddings and from losing benefits or tax exemptions for not doing so, reports Efe. This point was part of an amendment introduced through a bipartisan agreement in the Senate, which meant that the text now had to return to the House of Representatives for its final vote.
[El Senado de EEUU da luz verde al proyecto de ley que defiende el matrimonio gay]
The bill also repeals the Defense of Marriage law approved in 1996which defines it as the union between a man and a woman. Gay marriage has been legal in the United States since the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional in June 2015 the laws that prohibited it in some states.
But the mobilization around the defense of these unions recently gained momentum after the Supreme Court, now controlled by a conservative majorityrepealed in June the “Roe v. Wade” ruling, which for almost half a century protected access to abortion in the country.
[Estados que han prohibido el aborto en EEUU una semana después de que se derogase Roe vs. Wade]
Since then, a large number of activists and progressive politicians have warned of the possibility of the court doing the same with other rights, such as same-sex weddings, returning to the states the power to determine whether they allow it or not.
The bill does not establish gay marriage as a federal right applicable throughout the country, But if the Supreme Court were to revoke its doctrine, it would prevent states where it was no longer allowed from discriminating against homosexual couples married in others.
The president of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, admitted this Thursday that this fundamental right is under “real, direct and urgent threat,” and maintained that the approval of the regulations that protect it is “a glorious triumph of love, freedom and dignity for all.”