more than 70 percent of Americans—including a majority of Republicans—support the freedom of same-sex couples to get married.
More than 90 percent of Americans support marriage rights for interracial couples, who are also protected under the legislation.But religious-right leaders hostile to legal equality for LGBTQ people were angry that the bill received bipartisan support.
They have refused to recognize the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling as legitimate, and they have been emboldened by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s call for the court to overturn rulings recognizing and protecting the rights of LGBTQ people and same-sex couples the way it overturned Roe v.
Wade.A group of anti-equality leaders signed a Conservative Action Project letter dated July 26, which claimed that the Respect For Marriage Act would “wrongly marginalize social conservatives” and further “a new era of oppression” that the letter claims was unleashed when the Supreme Court recognized the right of same-sex couples to get married.In addition, dozens of religious-right leaders signed onto a similar letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, also dated July 26, that was organized by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious-right legal powerhouse that seeks to overturn marriage equality as one of the “generational wins” it is pursuing.
Read more on thenewcivilrightsmovement.com