How did Kansas, Missouri lawmakers vote on protections for same-sex and interracial marriage?

The House on Tuesday approved protections for same-sex and interracial marriages, with Kansas and Missouri legislators split mostly along party lines, after the Supreme Court’s decision overturning the nationwide right to an abortion stoked fears that rights for LGBTQ people are at risk.

Democratic Reps. Sharice Davids, Emanuel Cleaver and Cori Bush joined the Democratic majority to pass the Respect of Marriage Act in a 267 to 157 vote. Every Kansas Republican and most Missouri Republicans voted against the measure. Rep. Ann Wagner, who represents Missouri’s 2nd District in the St. Louis suburbs, was one of 47 Republicans to cross party lines to support the bill.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler, a Republican candidate for Senate representing Missouri’s 4th District, didn’t vote. Hartzler is a long-time opponent of same-sex marriage and was a spokeswoman for the campaign to ban same-sex marriage in the Missouri Constitution.

Hartzler’s office didn’t immediately respond to a question about why she missed the vote. Hartzler was scheduled to campaign in Greenwood, Mo., on Tuesday afternoon, but the House allows members to vote by proxy because of the pandemic.

While the White House supports the bill, it faces a more difficult path in the evenly-divided Senate, where it would need 60 votes to pass.

The legislation repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 federal law defining marriage as between a man and woman that was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013, and prohibits discrimination against valid out-of-state marriages. Combined, the provisions are intended to secure same-sex and interracial marriages if the Supreme Court ever reverses its 2015 decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, legalizing same-sex marriages nationwide, or a 1967 opinion, Loving v. Virginia, striking down interracial marriage bans.

Kansas and Missouri both ban same-sex marriage in their state constitutions. If the Supreme Court ever returned the issue of same-sex marriage to the states, both states would again prohibit them. But the bill would require Kansas and Missouri to continue recognizing valid, out-of-state same-sex marriages.

“Today’s passage of the Respect for Marriage Act is a critical step towards protecting marriage equality at all levels of our government and in every corner of the United States,” said Davids, a lesbian and the first openly LGBTQ member of Congress from Kansas.

“We moved quickly and worked together to give every family, in Kansas and across the country, a sense of security in the face of rising discrimination. It’s about time our federal policy on marriage equality aligned with the views of the vast majority of Americans. Today, we made sure that’s the case.”

Davids, who represents Kansas’ 3rd District, faces a tough race for re-election against Republican Amanda Adkins, a former Cerner executive and past chair of the state Republican Party. Adkins’ campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.

While there is widespread public support for same-sex marriage— a June Gallup poll found that 71 percent of Americans believe same-sex marriage should be legal— conservatives have targeted the LGBTQ community amid a push to limit transgender rights across the country.

Some lawmakers, like U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, have said they believe the court was wrong when it legalized same-sex marriage but have not indicated how they would vote on federal legislation to codify the court’s decision.

Hawley, a Republican, has said he does not believe the court’s abortion ruling means it will overturn the right to same-sex marriage. He said he did not believe there was a concerted effort to reverse the decision the way there was an effort to reverse Roe v. Wade.

But Justice Clarence Thomas, in a concurring opinion in the decision overturning Roe, argued that the court should also overturn past decisions that provide the right to same-sex marriage, same-sex intimacy and contraception.

That has led to fears that the court will reverse or weaken these rights in the coming years and prompted the House to act to protect them, as well as the right to interracial marriage—though Thomas, who is in an interracial marriage, didn’t focus on that right.

“America has come way too far since the days where interracial and same-sex marriage were banned by law, and I find it gob smacking that the GOP is trying to revive these debates from the dark ages. We can’t, and won’t, turn back now,” Cleaver said.

Rep. Jake LaTurner, a Republican representing Kansas’ 2nd District, noted Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion overturning Roe, which said the ruling was restricted to abortion. He accused Democrats of rushing the bill through the House.

“The Respect for Marriage Act is nothing more than a desperate attempt by Speaker Pelosi to score cheap political points,” LaTurner said. “This bill was introduced just 24 hours ago and has had no hearing, markup, or debate in the committee of jurisdiction.”

The Star’s Daniel Desrochers contributed reporting