NC official at White House event says LGBTQ marriage bill respects ‘basic humanity’
A Hillsborough town commissioner says he had a great experience traveling to Washington on Tuesday to watch President Joe Biden sign the Respect for Marriage Act at the White House.
The law repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibited the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and let states deny recognition to same-sex couples married in other states where it was legal.
It also provides federal recognition for interracial marriages.
Matt Hughes, Hillsborough’s mayor pro tem and a biracial, gay man, served on Biden’s national LGBTQ Victory Council, led the N.C. council’s 2020 campaign, and is a Democratic National Committee’s LGBTQ Campaign Caucus member.
His invitation to the White House arrived late last week, Hughes said, and he caught a flight to Washington after attending a Hillsborough Town Board meeting Monday night.
Tuesday’s ceremony and celebration on the South Lawn of the White House, was like “a thousand or so of your closest friends who have been fighting for LGBTQ rights,” Hughes said.
There were many in attendance who have been advocates for LGBTQ equality, Hughes said. As a former chair of the Orange County Democratic Party and current second vice chair of the N.C. Democratic Party, he has been in the fight most of his political life, he said.
Amendment 1, Roe v. Wade
The Orange County Democratic Party led the state in opposing Amendment 1, which banned same-sex marriages in North Carolina in 2012, Hughes said. While that law has never been repealed, a district court ruling in 2014 found it was unconstitutional.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 case Obergefell vs. Hodges established that same-sex marriage is constitutionally protected
Tuesday’s event included a lot of public officials, advocates, and people involved in pro-LGBTQ rights cases, Hughes said, but also “the folks who fought for a lot of these rights we thought were safe until the Dobbs decision..”
The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade in June, prompting Justice Clarence Thomas to suggest other landmark civil rights cases might get a second look. The Respect for Marriage Act was filed in response.
It passed the House, and gained support from a dozen Senate Republicans last month when an amendment was added so nonprofit religious groups could decline same-sex marriage requests.
If the Supreme Court were to overturn the Obergefell ruling, legal experts have said individual states could prohibit same-sex marriage within their borders, but they would still have to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
LGBTQ rights, same-sex marriage
There’s still a lot of work to be done, Hughes said, but Tuesday’s step was important for the LGBTQ community and will ensure people have more protections, especially in making decisions for their partner as they age.
“I think it’s saying that your country and your government respect your basic humanity,” Hughes said. “A lot of people aspire to get married, and to have that love recognized by the government, in an official manner, I think is tremendously important.”
“I just don’t think a lot of folks ... thought that nearly 10 years later we would be rehashing the fight to some extent all over again and then getting it passed into the law, and I think it’s because of the Supreme Court really activating a lot of people,” he said.
Public opinion has changed significantly since 1996, when Biden joined other senators in passing the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as being between a man and a woman.
An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll scheduled for release Thursday recently found that 68% of Americans now support same-sex marriage, up from 42% of Americans polled by Gallup in 2004.
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