It took guts, perhaps along with a careful look at polling results, for 47 House Republicans to join their Democratic colleagues in approving a bill late last month to codify interstate recogniton of same-sex marriages. Rep. Ann Wagner was the sole Missouri Republican to support it. In these hyperpartisan times, any such vote risks putting Republicans on a target list for removal for veering even slightly from strict conservative orthodoxy.
The Respect for Marriage Act, which faces a difficult but not insurmountable climb in the Senate, was necessary only because of the Supreme Court’s reversal of abortion rights and a hint by conservative justices that same-sex marital rights could be next. The only way to stave off such a reversal is for Congress to codify it in law — as Democrats should have done long ago for abortion rights when they controlled both houses.
For Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, voting for same-sex marital rights probably wasn’t a heavy lift, given projections of her reelection defeat. Her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, already has publicly supported same-sex marital rights, and Liz Cheney’s sister is a married lesbian.
