Congress passes same-sex marriage protection, despite tearful plea from Vicky Hartzler

Before Rep. Vicky Hartzler became a member of Congress, she was the face of the movement in Missouri to ban gay marriage. She traveled across the state in 2004, urging Missourians to add an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

Eighteen years later, as Congress prepared to enshrine same-sex marriage into federal law on Thursday, Hartzler broke into tears.

Long an advocate for traditional social conservatism, the western Missouri congresswoman spent one of her final days in office watching her colleagues deliver a final blow against the anti-same sex marriage position she had longed advocated. Hartzler, who has been in Congress since 2011, will leave in January after an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate.

“This is yet another step toward the Democrats goal of dismantling the traditional family, silencing voices of faith and permanently undoing our country’s God-woven foundation,” Hartzler said in a speech before the vote. “I hope and pray that my colleagues will find the courage to join me in opposing this misguided and dangerous bill.”

The bill passed 258-169, with bipartisan support. Rep. Ann Wagner was the only Republican from Missouri or Kansas to join Reps. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Missouri; Sharice Davids, D-Kansas; and Cori Bush, D-Missouri, in supporting the bill. Their support came after Sen. Roy Blunt, a retiring Republican, helped the bill get through the Senate with bipartisan support last week.

The bill offers federal protections for both same-sex marriage and interracial marriage. It repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that defined marriage as between a man and a woman and was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013, and would require states to recognize valid same-sex marriages performed in other states.

“I hope us finally repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and having people on both sides of the aisle say, ‘if you want to get married, or if you’re already married, it is just as valid as any other marriage and it needs to be recognized and respected,’ I honestly believe that can save lives,” Davids said.

It picked up steam after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in June, eliminating a 50-year precedent. In one of the concurring opinions, Justice Clarence Thomas expressed a desire to examine the precedent in the Obergefell case, the 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

Davids, who is one of 11 openly LGBTQ members of Congress, said the concurring opinion caused a lot of stress and anxiety for members of the community who were married or thinking of getting married.

“I think it feels more visceral for sure right now, to me specifically,” Davids said. “But I honestly can’t even imagine the level of stress and anxiety that it is causing people across the country.”

Public opinion has changed drastically since 2004, when Missouri was among the 13 states that passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage that year. Only 42% of Americans believed that same sex marriages should be valid, according to polling by Gallup at the time. On Election Day, Hartzler was the victor. She said she hoped Missouri would be a model for the country, showing that “in the heartland, we have a heart for families.”

Still, the effect of the constitutional amendments will remain. If Obergefell were overturned, the constitutional amendments would prevent new same-sex marriages from being performed in states like Kansas and Missouri, even though they would have to recognize valid marriages from other states.

Doug Gray, who helped lead the opposition to the same-sex marriage amendment in 2004, said he had complicated feelings about the vote and the fact that the issue still hadn’t been settled when it’s almost 2023.

“I think it’s great,” Gray said. “My partner and I will toast it when it happens. There’s just a bunch of emotions tied into it.”

The vote comes at a time when anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has been ramping up across the country. Last month, a shooter in Colorado Springs opened fire on an LGBTQ club, killing five people and injuring 25. State and local governments have attempted to remove books that deal with LGBTQ issues from libraries, have attempted to pass bills limiting the rights of transgender children and have sought to prevent gender and sexuality from being discussed in some classrooms.

Thomas Alonzo, the state board chairman of Equality Kansas, said he hopes that there can be an effort to remove Kansas’ same-sex marriage ban from the constitution, but that his group has been more focused on addressing legislation that’s being introduced to limit LGBTQ rights.

“There are a lot of old measures on the books, there’s sodomy laws and things like that, that need to come off,” Alonzo said. “But we’ve had so many other things that were prioritized, such as these trans bathroom bills and trans sports bills.”

Last week, Cleaver’s eyes welled up during a conversation about the Respect for Marriage Act. He had a cousin, Gary, who died from complications from AIDS at the height of the pandemic. Cleaver said his cousin died alone, at home, after being kicked out of his church’s choir because they found out he was gay and had HIV.

“I think for a lot of people they started realizing how stupid that was,” Cleaver said. “And finally they reached a point where, people in Congress, you start talking to these folks and they all said yeah, I have gay people in my family.”

Hartzler, too, has a gay relative. Her nephew came out publicly earlier this year as he took part in a lawsuit aimed at preventing discrimination against LGBTQ students at religious-based schools.

Yet her opposition to LGBTQ rights have been consistent. Earlier this year, she spoke at an event in Springfield where, on the outskirts of the room, there were large posters with the definition of marriage highlighted as between a man and a woman. One of the early ads in her failed campaign for U.S. Senate attacked a transgender collegiate swimmer.

In her floor speech Thursday, Hartzler said the bill would be used for “predatory lawsuits” against people of faith. She said the religious freedom language, which says religious organizations would not have to provide services, facilities or goods for same-sex marriages, including religious nonprofits, didn’t go far enough to protect people of faith.

Cleaver, a pastor, said the biblical argument against gay marriage came from people who were using the bible as a buffet, meaning people were picking out parts to defend their arguments.

“I think theologically and biblically that had been an issue used in the church to help divide people,” Cleaver said.

The Star’s Jonathan Shorman contributed to this article