Majority Leader Schumer Remarks On Marriage Equality Legislation

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the need to codify marriage equality into law to protect the fundamental rights of millions of Americans. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

Over the past few months, both sides have engaged good-faith conversations about how to pass marriage equality into law. I truly hope – for the sake of tens of millions of Americans - that there will be at least ten Republicans who will vote with us to pass this important bill soon.

Democrats are ready to make it happen—and willing to debate reasonable compromises on the specifics—so I urge my colleagues on the other side to join us.

Around the country, the feeling is sinking in that this is a dark time for individual rights, so codifying marriage equality is one of the best things we can do to provide peace of mind for millions of Americans, who are gay Americans, LGBTQ Americans who are married, and to their families, to their friends. It extends way beyond the individual couple who's married.

It’s an issue that hits home for many of us in this chamber, including me. If we ever find ourselves in the awful situation of having marriage equality overturned by the Supreme Court, I daresay that the vast majority of us would see the impacts in our own personal lives, or the personal lives of our close family and friends in one way or another.

It would be risky and perhaps foolish to think that such a day could never come. Maybe a few months ago people would think that. No more. Justice Thomas put his cards on the table. He said that he is very open that the Supreme Court’s decision protecting same sex marriages should in fact be reconsidered. Often when Justice Thomas says it, his other four MAGA Republican Supreme Court colleague Justices are thinking the same thing.

To anyone who says that the high court would never be so reckless as to overturn a decision that has protected this fundamental right of millions of people, all I have to say is this is wake up. Look what they did, look what they did in the Dobbs decision.

Passing marriage equality in the Senate is all about making sure such a danger never, never materializes.

Millions of Americans, tens of millions of Americans, will breathe a huge sigh of relief if we do this. And it's the right thing to do. We know that America has trod on the long path towards greater equality. We know that when the Constitution was written, millions of Americans were enslaved. In many states you had to be a white male protestant property owner to vote. That would leave you and me out, Mr. President. They know that. And they know, and most Americans are proud, that we've made progress. There are some dark forces encapsulated, embodied in MAGA Republicans, so many of whom are in this chamber, who want to take steps backward. We're not going to let it happen. We shouldn't let it happen.

So I truly hope – for the sake of tens of millions of Americans - that there will be at least ten Republicans who will vote with us to pass this very, very important bill.

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