In surprising news, the U.S. House of Representatives actually passed a good bill: H. R. 8404 or the “Respect for Marriage Act” passed with a bi-partisan 61.9 percent of the vote, receiving 267 of the 431 potential votes.

This vote is both overdue and unfortunately necessary thanks to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe V. Wade. Despite Loving v. Virginia making interracial marriage legal for the past 55+ years and Obergefell v. Hodges making gay marriage legal for the past 7+ (seriously, gay marriage was legalized in the same year of the start of Schitt’s Creek), the Supreme Court has shown us that precedent does not matter and the word of law is the only thing that will actually protect hard-won rights.

Still, that does leave the fact that 157 representatives voted against this bill (7 more apparently abstained from the vote). Even wilder is that some of the people who voted against it are in interracial marriages themselves.

🤨 #protectinterracialmarriage #respectformarriageact #protectsamesexmarriage #interracial #mixed #republicans #hypocrite #onlyinamerica #foryou #foryourpage #fyp

Michelle Steel is Korean American and married to Shawn Steel (a white man) and opposed the bill in an attempt to fight LGBTQ people’s right to marriage.

Bryon Donalds is African American and married to Erika Donalds (a white woman).

Michael Cloud is Caucasian American and married Rosel Cloud (a naturalized citizen of Latinx descent).

Stephanie Bice is Iranian Dutch American and married to Geoffrey Brice (a white man).

Some other representatives also have family members who are in interracial relationships.

One of Young Kim’s daughters is married to a white man.

Mary Miller has Black in-laws and grandkids.

(1/3) Rodney Davis knows I have a large diverse family that includes two grandsons with Down Syndrome that he is smearing two days before an election because he is a failing career politician trying to hide the fact that he voted to fund Planned Parenthood & he voted for…(cont.) pic.twitter.com/qR8owWzl4q

(I can’t help but wonder what the reunions are like for these families.)

Perhaps even worse is the fact that Glenn Thompson, a Republican Representative for Pennsylvania, attended his gay son’s wedding three days after he voted no on the “Respect for Marriage Act. How’s that for a wedding present? I can’t decide who I feel worse for: the son of Representative Thompson or the man who just married into this family.

As a biracial, bisexual woman, I would like to ask: why?!

No one was forcing them to do this, the bill had bi-partisan support. So why?

Is it the money, did someone pay them to vote that way? Or are they so racist that they would undo Loving V. Virginia even if it meant nullifying their own children’s marriages?

Seriously, this is some Serena Joy-esque logic that I’m sure will not backfire on them in any way. If you don’t want gay/interracial marriage to be legal, why did you get one?!

It is genuinely baffling the cognitive dissonance these people are able to pull off. They seem determined to pull us back to the dark ages while also benefiting from the enlightened, progressive environment that was won with the blood, sweat, and tears of the generations before them (or the same generations in the cases of some older representatives; Mildred Loving only passed away in 2008, at 69-years-old). 

It also demonstrates the growing divide between U.S. public opinion and governing bodies/representatives: Approval for interracial relationships is that a 60-year high (currently at 94%, compared to the 4% when the poll started in the 1950s) and LGBTQ+ relationships fare similarly (reaching 70% approval for the first time in 2021) and yet some people are still so racist/homophobic that they’d rather shoot themselves in the foot than let other people be happy.

And this isn’t just a matter of being denied equal rights, but also of ensuring people in private relationships are not criminalized and persecuted for who they love. Richard and Mildred Loving had the police break down their door and arrest them at 2am, a mere five weeks after they were married. The two were thrown in jail and only avoided prison time under the condition that they leave the state. They only returned after the ACLU took on their case and won.

If Loving V. Virginia hadn’t effectively legalized interracial marriage and relationships, I might not have been born (my parents are white and Japanese American respectively) and my family certainly wouldn’t have been able to live in my home state of Arizona, one of the states in which it was a felony until 1968.

And the fact that so many Republicans want to end marriages and destroy the homes of so many families is nothing short of vile.

Here’s the full list of every Republican who voted against the bill; I encourage calling your congresspeople, both representatives who voted against and senators who have yet to vote. Now more than ever we need to make our voices heard and fight for what is right.

List is via These 157 House Republicans Voted Against Protections For Same-Sex Marriage (yahoo.com)

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

Kimberly Terasaki is a Creative Writing major, fanfiction author, and intersectional feminist. She liked Ahsoka Tano before it was cool, will fight you about Rey being a “Mary Sue,” and is current President of her college Dumbledore’s Army. She looks forward to writing more for the Mary Sue and appreciates all constructive criticism.

Have a tip or story idea? Email us. Or to keep it anonymous, click here.