Kevin McCarthy thinks Respect for Marriage Act is a ‘game,’ but he’s the one playing politics
In 2015 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples had as much right to marry as heterosexual couples. The decision, Obergefell vs. Hodges, said the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution required states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples or recognize such unions when performed lawfully in other states.
In the years since, countless same-sex couples have gotten married across the nation, including in the San Joaquin Valley. They have formed families with children and built lives marked by rituals synonymous with family life — shopping, vacationing, house cleaning, and getting kids ready for school in the fall.
Fast forward to last month, when the Supreme Court overturned the 50-year-old Roe vs. Wade ruling that made abortion legal. In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said other rulings, like Obergefell, need to be reconsidered.
That set off predictable alarm bells, and on Tuesday, the Democrat-controlled House passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify protections for same-sex marriage into federal law.
Every Democrat, including Fresno’s Jim Costa, voted for the bill. Forty-seven Republicans also backed it, including David Valadao of Hanford.
But voting against it was Bakersfield Republican Kevin McCarthy, the GOP leader in the House. Connie Conway of Tulare, elected last month to fill out former Rep. Devin Nunes term through the end of this year, was also a no vote.
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What rationale did McCarthy give for voting no? He viewed the bill as political gamesmanship by the Democrats.
”They’re not being serious about the issues that the American public care most about (like) inflation. This is not an issue that’s coming before us,” McCarthy told The Washington Post in an interview. “And I just think you give them more fodder to keep playing political games instead of being serious about the issues we need to work on.”
McCarthy’s head in the sand
There could not be a better example of a head-in-the-sand mentality than that. McCarthy, who now represents Clovis and other parts of Fresno County in his newly drawn District 20, knows that the court could overturn Obergefell just as quickly it did with Roe.
Does he really think inflation is more important than defining who can get legally married?
McCarthy’s vote also reflects an apparent flip of the position he held just several months ago.
A reporter for the Washington Blade, an LGBTQ-oriented news website, asked McCarthy at a news conference last September whether he backed same-sex marriage.
“Look, same-sex marriage is the law of the land, and it’s what America holds and that’s the law of the land,” McCarthy told the Blade reporter.
As reported in the Blade’s story: “Pressed by the Blade on whether his views have changed, McCarthy repeated, ‘It’s the law of the land. I support the law of the land. I don’t see how that’s different. I don’t see how that’s news.’”
Represent gay people too
While McCarthy could not bring himself to vote for the Respect for Marriage Act, the House’s No. 3 Republican, Elise Stefanik of New York had no problem casting a yes vote.
Besides supporting same-sex unions, the act also upholds interracial marriage. A Gallup poll in June found that 70% of Americans approve of same-sex marriages, with majority support in both political parties. When it comes to interracial marriage, 94% of Americans approve, the poll found.
McCarthy’s reasoning for denying the Respect for Marriage Act is nothing more than pandering to Christian conservatives who don’t accept homosexuality in any form.
McCarthy is forgetting that his district is populated by more than just religious conservatives. He should refocus on that fact and realize he is the representative of all people, and then vote accordingly. Something as sacred as marriage could depend on it.
