How Tammy Baldwin Guided Marriage Equality Through a Divided Senate
(CNN) -- Hours before the Senate voted to protect same-sex marriage rights, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin tapped twice on the wooden table before her for good luck."I'm not a superstitious person," the Democrat told CNN. "But I still have to do that."Baldwin needed not worry; She had not left the rights of LGBTQ people like herself up to fate.
The Senate passed the bill 61-36 on Tuesday, five months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and left the left fearful about what six conservative justices could do.In an interview at her hideaway office in the basement of the Capitol, Baldwin -- the first out LGBTQ member of the Senate -- noted two key moments in the passage of the bill, which would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and establish into federal law that same-sex marriages in one state must be recognized by another.The first was on June 24, when the court decided in Dobbs v.
Jackson Women's Health Organization to undo the constitutional right to an abortion. In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas argued that the court should also reconsider past rulings built from the same legal ground, including those protecting same-sex marriage and access to contraception.Less than a month later, the Democratic-controlled House passed New York Rep.
Jerry Nadler's bill to protect same-sex marriage. And California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins and Baldwin introduced their bill, known as the Respect for Marriage Act."I can tell you that as a member of the LGBTQ community and hearing from both same-sex couples and interracial couples who read Dobbs and read the Thomas concurrence and said, 'Oh, my God, what is happening,'" Baldwin said. "'We've gone back 50 years with regard.
