Guest opinion: Biden’s signature on marriage act is vindication of the Utah compromise
by Derek Monson and Rev. Marian Edmonds-Allen
President Joe Biden’s signing of the Respect for Marriage Act offers Americans an opportunity to begin turning the page on the failed politics of the culture wars. Building a legislative consensus by pairing marriage equality with religious freedom protections shows that we, as a nation and as a people, can overcome seemingly intractable divides and resolve politically thorny policy issues if we simply exercise the political will to do so.
By proving that consensus around LGBTQ equality and religious freedom is possible, the Respect for Marriage Act is a vindication of the Utah compromise.
In 2015, Utah lawmakers and advocates for religious freedom and the LGBTQ community (including both authors of this article) came together to transcend political and policy divides and find a consensus agreement on LGBTQ nondiscrimination in employment and housing and religious freedom. Both LGBTQ and religious Utahns gained new legal protections for their lives and identities – the security of knowing they would remain free to live according to their deepest beliefs and most cherished values. While all sides made gains that served their interests, everyone ultimately had to make peace with the idea of a legislative compromise.
Predictably, extremists on both sides objected to Utah’s new law because it wasn’t pure according to their own lights. It offered genuine protections for the jobs and homes of LGBTQ Utahns on the one hand, and it protected the expression and conscience of religious Utahns in the workplace, marketplace and in public service on the other hand. Critics of Utah’s law sought to marginalize it and contain its spread. One of their major objections was their belief that this approach could only work in a place like Utah.
The success of the amended Respect for Marriage Act has proven that argument to be patently false. If the most divided and dysfunctional government in the nation – the U.S. Congress and the president – can find consensus on LGBTQ equality and religious freedom, can any elected body honestly say they can’t?
Finding legislative consensus requires us to set aside our prejudices – both those against LGBTQ Americans and those against religious Americans. But the Respect for Marriage Act shows it can be done. It remains to us to turn the page and find the next policy area where consensus and compromise will produce policy solutions for all Americans. (Read the entire article here)
News Releases
Rep. Blake Moore’s legislation to help save the Great Salt Lake heads to the President’s desk
Last night, Congressman Blake Moore’s Saline Lake Ecosystems in the Great Basin States Program Act passed the Senate. Introduced with Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA) and led by Senators Merkley (D-OR) and Romney (R-UT) in the Senate, this legislation would establish a scientific monitoring and assessment program to help save the Great Salt Lake and other saline lakes in the West. The bill now heads to the White House to be signed into law by President Biden. (Read More)
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