The Supreme Court have opened the floodgates. In June, the right-leaning bench went on a tear, decimating, among other things, the federal right to a safe and legal abortion. But that wasn’t all they did. Justice Clarence Thomas speculated that they could use the same logic they employed to end Roe v. Wade to destroy other human rights, including same-sex marriage. And one key figure in the Biden administration made a calm, moving, yet forceful rebuke of his Republican colleagues.
Buttigieg on Republicans voting against marriage equality: “If they don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, they can vote yes and move on, and that would be really reassuring for a lot of families around America, including mine.” pic.twitter.com/5tvsmRuhcd
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 24, 2022
Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg went on CNN on Sunday, where he addressed the House semi-narrowly passing a bill, called the Respect for Marriage Act, codifying marriage equality into law, lest the Supreme Court try to reverse it. Forty-seven Republicans voted for it; 157 did not. The bill now heads to the Senate, where it faces opposition from the likes of Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and Marco Rubio, the latter who has called the bill a “waste of time.”
“If he’s got time to fight against Disney, I don’t know why he wouldn’t have time to help safeguard marriages like mine,” Buttigieg said, alluding to Florida Republicans who’ve supported a bill widely perceived as homophobic and transphobic. “Look, this is really, really important to a lot of people. It’s certainly important to me.”
Buttigieg then walked through a typical morning at home with his husband Chasten Glezman and their twin children. “That half-hour of my morning had me thinking about how much I depend on and count on my spouse every day,” he said. “And our marriage deserves to be treated equally.”
He also took aim at House Republicans, most of whom opposed the bill, which would help protect a federal law that went into effect in 2015. “I don’t know why this will be hard for a senator or a congressman,” Buttigieg said, “I don’t understand how such a majority of House Republicans voted no on our marriage as recently as Tuesday, hours after I was talking about transportation policy, having what I thought were perfectly normal conversations with many of them on that subject, only for them to go around the corner and say that my marriage doesn’t deserve to continue.
“If they don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, they can vote yes and move on. And that would be really reassuring for a lot of families around America, including mine.”
Buttigieg has become very good at delivering thoughtful, restrained yet passionate rebukes to conservative talking points. When a Fox News host tried to get him to denounce people peacefully protesting Justice Brett Kavanaugh at a restaurant, he reminded the far right network that citizens have every right to do so, long as they stay peaceful — which, unlike the Jan. 6 rioters, they did.