If you didn’t know, US legislative houses are working to either pass or deny a bill that would essentially codify the legalization of gay marriages in America. Currently, it has only been made legal via a Supreme Court case that sets a precedent for such. But as you know, thanks to the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade, that precedent can be undone.
The fear, naturally, is that the same thing could happen in regards to the issue of gay marriage, making it no longer a federal issue but a state one as abortion is now. In this case, some 30 or more could and likely would choose to make gay marriages illegal once more.
And so, House and Senate Democrats are pushing hard for this bill to go through before a mostly conservative Supreme Court bench, such as the one we have now, which could possibly make more problems for them.
It’s proactive, to be sure, and a rather smart move on their part.
The only question is whether or not it will get the support it needs to make it to the President’s desk, where it is sure to be signed into law.
The House of Representatives has already voted on the Respect for Marriage Act, as it is called, allowing the bill to move on to the Senate. And there is where the most questionability of the bill will be, as the majority the Democrats hold in the Upper House is even less than the abysmal one found in the House.
However, it may not matter. So far, at least five Republican senators have said they would vote for the bill when it comes time to vote.
For those like Transportation Secretary and the first openly gay cabinet secretary, the fact that some senators or congress members, in general, would vote against this is confusing.
As he told CNN during a recent interview with their Jake Tapper on Sunday, “This is really, really important to a lot of people. It’s certainly important to me. Our marriage deserves to be treated equally, and I don’t know why this would be a hard vote for a senator or a congressman.”
Naturally, he wants the Senate and all those within it to vote “yes” and “move on.”
Buttigieg says this should be easy for GOP senators like Florida’s Marco Rubio, who told a CNN reporter that the vote was a “stupid waste of time” and “non-issue.”
According to Rubio, it’s a waste of time because it’s not Congress that should be voting on the legalization of gay marriages in the US. Instead, he thinks that responsibility should be one at the state level, just as abortion now is – that way, the voice is in the hands of the people.
Buttigieg says if Rubio doesn’t want to waste time, he should vote yes and move on. After all, if he’s “got time to fight against Disney, I don’t know why he wouldn’t have time to help safeguard marriages like mine.”
The Transportation Secretary also doesn’t understand how more than a few House Republicans (47 to be exact) could have had civil and “perfectly normal conversations” with him about transportation policy and such on Tuesday and then, just hours later, turn right around and vote against his marriage.
Could it be that just because you don’t respect all of someone’s life decisions doesn’t mean you get to treat them like dirt? Who would have thought? Pete Buttigieg, who claims to be a Christian, ought to understand that better than most.
Plus, these are men and women who have quite literally vowed to put the needs of the American people above themselves. That means setting differences in lifestyles aside to focus on what needs to happen at the moment and being a professional adult.
Then again, this is the same man who can’t understand why Americans aren’t lining up to buy new electric vehicles and abandon their tried-and-true fossil fuel cars. So, chances are he’s a bit more out of touch with the average American, as well as anyone who isn’t a liberal politician, than most of us could imagine.
