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Senate takes step toward codifying same-sex marriage

 By Tom Strode - Posted at Baptist Press: Published November 16, 2022 WASHINGTON (BP)—The U.S. Senate took the first and an apparently decisive step Wednesday (Nov. 16) toward codifying same-sex marriage into law with the aid of more than one-fifth of Republicans in the chamber. Senators voted 62-37 to invoke cloture, as the procedural move is known, and thereby bring up for a final vote the Respect for Marriage Act (RMA). All 50 Democrats and 12 Republicans voted in favor of the motion, which needed 60 votes to succeed. The bill would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and require federal and state recognition of same-sex marriages considered legal in the jurisdiction where they took place. The Senate is expected to vote soon to approve passage of the RMA, which will require only a majority and will serve as a watershed, congressional redefinition of the institution of marriage if enacted. The House of Representatives approved the RMA in July, when 47 GOP members joined al