Hawley opposes bill to protect same-sex marriage, says it should be states’ decision

As U.S. Senate leaders seek Republican votes to pass a law protecting same-sex and interracial marriage, they might not find those votes in the delegations from Kansas and Missouri.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, said Wednesday that he thinks the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong when it ruled in the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that same-sex marriage was protected by the constitution. He said he didn’t want to codify a ruling where he felt the court had erred.

“I’ve been a no on this,” Hawley said. “The reason is I don’t think that the underlying Supreme Court decision was rightly decided, I think that the Constitution leaves the issue of marriage to the states and always has.”

Hawley’s comments come amid a push in the U.S. Senate to codify federal protections for same-sex marriage in the aftermath of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. In a concurring opinion to the ruling, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said he believed that the court’s ruling on same-sex marriage should be re-examined.

Thomas, who is in an interracial marriage, did not mention Loving v. Virginia, the landmark 1967 case that legalized such marriages nationally. Democrats have paired the issues in one bill as they seek votes in support of same-sex marriage.

Hawley’s office said he believes that Loving v. Virginia was correctly decided.

“It’s absurd to imply otherwise,” said Phil Letsou, Hawley’s spokesman. “Democrats should stop spending their time on political games.”

The resulting effort is a bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law defining marriage as between a man and a woman. While the legislation would not force states to allow same-sex marriages, it ensures that states and the federal government would have to recognize a valid same-sex marriage and adds protections for marriages based on race, sex, ethnicity or national origin.

What would happen in KS, MO if Obergefell overturned?

Both the Missouri and Kansas constitutions ban same-sex marriage. The bill would require both states to recognize valid, out-of-state marriages.

The bill easily passed the U.S. House in July with a bipartisan vote. St. Louis area Rep. Ann Wagner was the only Republican from Missouri or Kansas to support the bill. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, a Republican who was the spokeswoman for the effort to ban same-sex marriage in the Missouri Constitution, did not cast a vote on the bill.

“[Hawley]’s just proving how ill-suited he is to hold public office and make policy for the rest of us,” said Tom Witt, the executive director of Kansas Equality, an LGBTQ political advocacy group. “Same-sex couples are getting married, we’re raising families, we’re buying property. And his whole idea of taking all that apart, would intentionally throw a huge chunk of this nation into utter turmoil.”

Hawley’s chief of staff, Eric Teetsel, was previously the president of the Family Policy Alliance in Kansas, a group that lists homosexuality among “false forms of sexuality.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said the Senate would hold a vote on the bill in the coming weeks, regardless of whether it had the 60 votes necessary to pass the Senate, where each party controls 50 seats.

What will other Kansas and Missouri senators do?

Hawley was the only senator from Kansas or Missouri who gave a definitive answer on the bill as Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, are working to get votes.

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, who is up for reelection in November, is reviewing the legislation and waiting for amendments, according to his office.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, said he was waiting to see the final version of the bill. Collins and Baldwin said in an op-ed published Wednesday that they were working on language that would affirm that the bill does not eliminate religious liberty objections to same-sex marriage.

Blunt, who is retiring this year, has displayed willingness to team up with Democrats to pass legislation as he prepares to exit political office. Earlier this year, Blunt was part of the group of Republicans who helped the Democrats pass legislation aimed at addressing gun violence and he supported bipartisan legislation to fund infrastructure projects.

Missouri poll says state supports legal same-sex marriage

A recent poll in Missouri, conducted in late August by TargetPoint, a Republican-leaning pollster, found that 60% of Missourians said same-sex marriages should be legally valid. Among Missouri Republicans, 46% opposed the validity of same-sex marriages, while 44% were supportive.

The Missouri numbers are slightly lower than the national average. A 2021 Gallup poll found that 71% of Americans support same-sex marriage and 55% of Republicans are supportive.

“It’s just accepted that LGBT people are getting married, just like everybody else is getting married,” Witt said. “Our spouses, in day to day life, are getting the same respect as anybody spouse would. Very rarely am I running into anybody who tries to criticize or diminish our relationship. It’s just really not happening.”

Roger Marshall: ‘Nobody is talking about this’

Sen. Roger Marshall, a Republican from Kansas, did not specifically say whether he would support the bill, saying instead that his focus is on gas prices and national security instead.

“I have respect for gay marriage,” Marshall said. “It’s the law of the land right now. It’s on equal footing with marriage between a man and a woman. I just finished my 100th town hall back home. Nobody is talking about this.”

Schumer pushed back at arguments that the legislation wasn’t necessary during a press conference Wednesday, saying the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion was proof that the senate needed to take action.

“When some Republicans say ‘a vote is unnecessary, it won’t happen,’ they said the same thing about Roe,” Schumer said. “And here we are.”