Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21) issued the following statement Tuesday evening after voting against H.R. 8404:
Today, House members of both parties voted to recognize — legislatively — marriage beyond the longstanding bedrock institution of one man and one woman. They did so with one day to review the bill, no committee debate or markup, and without a full understanding of the consequences — a mere seven years removed from a decree by unelected Supreme Court Justices redefining marriage for the people.
As important, this bill would – in the name of “full faith and credit,” legislatively force one state to recognize a union from another state in violation of its own laws. And in so doing, too many of my colleagues are hiding behind superfluous language to legislate already-existing law — reinforced by the Court’s proper recognition of equal protection to marry regardless of race — in order to further advance a court-manufactured definition of marriage beyond one man and one woman.
The truth is that anti-miscegenation laws are, as noted by Justice Thomas in footnote 5 of Obergefell, rooted in slavery – for example, in Virginia, passed in 1691 in “[a]n act for suppressing outlying Slaves.” Marriage, on the other hand, is an institution that spans millennia and cultures, and it is rooted in the foundation of a stable society built around the family.
A bill to bolster congressionally-recognized gay marriage is a solution in search of a problem, and all members of Congress know — or should know — this.
But, with wide open borders, massive inflation, and an economy limping into recession, Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues need to lure members of Congress into codifying recognition of gay marriage for no reason other than political games in response to Clarence Thomas living rent free in their heads.
