July 21, 2022
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall wrote a letter to Senator Mike Lee and a letter to Senator Mitt Romney on Thursday regarding the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week.
In urging both Senators to support the bill, Mayor Mendenhall wrote, “Representatives John Curtis, Blake Moore, Burgess Owens, and Chris Stewart were among 47 Republicans who joined Democrats in voting for the bill — a surprising number that breathed new life into what many thought would be a futile, but righteous, partisan exercise in a mostly gridlocked Congress. I applaud and deeply appreciate their action, which duly represents the 71 percent of Americans who support same-sex marriages and 94 percent of Americans who support interracial marriages.”
The bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act is about supporting loving families, no matter what they look like.
In addition to cementing the federal protections for same-sex marriages that were conferred by previous Supreme Court decisions, passing the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act would remove the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) from federal law, preventing it from being re-triggered should the Supreme Court overturn Obergefell v. Hodges. Restoring DOMA would allow states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages and prevent same-sex married couples from accessing more than 1,100 federal benefits and protections.
“Rather than waiting for the Supreme Court to create confusion and chaos on marriage equality, I respectfully request that you rationally and pragmatically choose to codify what has become a common-sense, mainstream measure,” Mayor Mendenhall wrote. “If Utah’s House delegation can stand together in support of loving families, so can its senators.”
Last December, Salt Lake City earned the maximum score possible on the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index. The score of 100 is a marked improvement over the 66 the City received in 2019, just before Mayor Mendenhall took office. The shift demonstrated the City’s commitment to LGBTQ+ people and rights.
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