Tillis says there’s no ‘maybe’ in his decision to support same-sex marriage bill

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis plans to vote in favor of a bill in Congress that creates a federal law protecting same-sex and interracial marriages.

“I’m prepared to support it,” Tillis told McClatchy on Tuesday outside the Senate chamber. “I said that last week and some people had me down as a maybe, and I said, ‘What part of, ‘I’m going to support it,’ did they not get?’”

Tillis’ decision to support the bill goes against the vote of every Republican member of North Carolina’s delegation in the U.S. House last week.

But Tillis defended the bill’s text, saying, “If you look at this, it is a sincere codification of current law.”

That’s been the goal of Democrats on several topics after a decision in late June by the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Justice Clarence Thomas released an accompanying opinion that said the country’s highest court should reexamine other landmark cases that have guaranteed rights to contraception and same-sex marriage, among others.

Rep. Kathy Manning, a Democrat representing a portion of North Carolina’s Triad, introduced a bill that the House passed last week that would ensure the right to contraception. None of North Carolina’s House Republicans voted in favor of her bill. All of the House Democrats did. It’s waiting on a vote in the Senate.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York, introduced the Respect for Marriage Act that passed the House last week.

Senators expect to vote on the bill this week but need 60 votes for it to pass. The Senate is evenly split with 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats and two independents who caucus with Democrats. Last week, at least five Republicans, including Tillis, said they would vote in favor of the bill. Sens. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia and Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, are out this week after testing positive for COVID-19.

Whether Democrats can find enough votes to pass the Respect for Marriage Act remains a mystery on the Hill. Tillis said active discussions are happening with his colleagues.

“There are people who have questions about the text,” Tillis said. “It’s a fairly short bill, and they have questions we’re trying to work through.”

Tillis and Amendment One

McClatchy left a voicemail and an email with North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr’s office to see where he stood on the the Respect for Marriage Act. His spokeswoman, Caitlin Carroll, did not respond.

Tillis’ support of a bill codifying the right to same-sex marriage led some of his constituents to take to social media to express confusion. Tillis’ record on LGBTQ legislation has been all over the place in both his role in the state House and the U.S. Senate, McClatchy previously reported.

Tillis served as North Carolina House speaker in 2011 when lawmakers chose to declare the only valid unions in North Carolina to be between one man and one woman. That measure then went on the ballot as a constitutional amendment, which voters passed in 2012 by a margin of 61% to 39%.

Tillis had to leave the interview to vote on the Senate floor Tuesday before McClatchy could ask about why his vote seemingly differed now. That left his spokesman, Adam Webb, to answer the question about Amendment One.

“I think it is important to point out that he was speaker of the House and this is something the conference wanted to do, so that’s why it advanced,” Webb said. “But I would strongly point out that even when it passed, he said it’s a generational issue and he wouldn’t be surprised if it was repealed in 20 years.”

Webb added that now that he’s a senator, he’s in a different position on casting his vote.

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