These 17 Lawmakers Voted Both For And Against Gay Marriage
The Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA; H.R. 8404) became law last week, on Dec 13th 2023. It protects gay marriage in the US1. It also repeals H.R. 3396, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), because it has to. DOMA was the anti-gay-marriage bill of 19962.
I remember the firestorm in 1996 when the Defense of Marriage Act was passed. It’s a good feeling, seeing the tide change so drastically in one’s lifetime. DOMA passed by overwhelming majority: 342-67 in the House, 84-15 in the Senate. RFMA passed by nearly as large majorities in the other direction. It occurred to me that if I can remember both these bills being passed, then surely there are US lawmakers still in office now that were in office in 1996, and that voted with the majority both times. People who first voted against gay marriage, and then for it.
Google didn’t give any results when I tried to find a list of such people though. Maybe my Google-fu is weak, maybe Google itself has grown decrepit, but… maybe no one has bothered to put out such a list yet?? This seems very odd, because it’s extremely simple to do. The lists of all Representatives and Senators that voted Yea on DOMA, and all Representatives and Senators that voted Yea on RFMA, are available online in an easy copy-paste format. I bumped them against each other in Excel in less time than it’s taking me to type up this post! But on the off chance no one else has done this yet, that list is below.
This is not a dunk-list. This is a list of celebration. As a friend stated: Sometimes good and meaningful change can happen. This is to remember that we can grow and improve over time. One of the greatest virtues of Rationality is the ability to absorb new information and update beliefs accordingly. Shaming someone for making a good change and fixing past errors will reduce how often people are willing to improve themselves and fix errors! Updating publicly is sometimes scary or embarrassing, and it should be met with praise.
Blumenauer (D-OR)
Calvert (R-CA)
Clyburn (D-SC)
DeLauro (D-CT)
Diaz-Balart (R-FL)
Dingell (D-MI)
Doggett (D-TX)
Hoyer (D-MD)
Kaptur (D-OH)
Kildee (D-MI)
Leahy (D-VT)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Neal (D-MA)
Rush (D-IL)
Upton (R-MI)
*Biden (D-DE in 1996, POTUS in 2022)
Please note that it’s possible that one or more names above aren’t a single person, and are instead, by coincidence, two people with the same last name, party, and state in 1996 and 2022.
RFMA requires the federal govt and all states to recognize any same-sex and interracial marriage performed legally within any other state (prior to this they had been protected by Supreme Court ruling, and not by legislation)
DOMA prevented the federal govt from recognizing gay marriage, and allowed states to not recognize gay marriages performed in other states.