The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted 61-36 in favor of advancing the Respect for Marriage Act, with 11 Republicans joining all 50 Democrats to vote in favor of the bill which will codify same-sex and interracial marriage protections into federal law.

The amended bill now goes back to the House of Representatives for a final vote before being sent to President Joe Biden’s desk for signature.

"With today’s bipartisan Senate passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, the United States is on the brink of reaffirming a fundamental truth: love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love," Biden said in a statement following the vote.

"For millions of Americans, this legislation will safeguard the rights and protections to which LGBTQI+ and interracial couples and their children are entitled," he added. "It will also ensure that, for generations to follow, LGBTQI+ youth will grow up knowing that they, too, can lead full, happy lives and build families of their own."

"I look forward to welcoming them at the White House after the House passes this legislation and sends it to my desk, where I will promptly and proudly sign it into law," the president wrote.

The Senate’s final Tuesday afternoon vote followed a series of proposed amendments from Republican lawmakers seeking to further strengthen religious protections within the bill. Three proposals put forward by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., failed to gain the necessary 60 votes to be added to the overall text. 

The Senate did on Monday vote in a 61-35 bipartisan fashion on an amendment to protect certain religious liberties, securing the necessary Republican votes to move forward on the full law. 

“The Senate is passing the Respect for Marriage Act today. The long but inexorable march towards greater equality advances forward,” Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said from the chamber floor ahead of the vote. “By passing this bill, the Senate is sending a message [...] that every American needs to hear: No matter who you are, or who you love, you too deserve dignity and equal treatment under the law.”

"What a great day," Schumer added immediately after the vote. 

The House of Representatives passed their version of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in July, with 47 Republicans joining all present Democrats. But action on the bill stalled in the Senate, where Republicans expressed concerns that the bill would, as written, infringe on the rights of religious groups and organizations that do not support same-sex marriage. 

Arizona Sen. Kirsten Sinema, who is openly bisexual, said at a press conference following the Senate vote that she hopes the bill gets more Republican support in the House this time around.

“Being gay is normal," the Arizona Democrat said. "I’m so proud that we were able to send a message across the country that this is normal, these families are normal, these marriages are normal."

In mid-November, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced an amendment that, in part, ensure religious non-profits would not be required to facilitate marriages that go against their beliefs, and further makes clear “that the bill does not require or authorize the federal government to recognize polygamous marriages.”

Senators added clarifying language that would prevent the bill “from being used to diminish or repeal” any religious liberty provisions awarded in the Constitution or under federal law, and states that an organization’s tax-exempt status may not be altered under the bill, provided that status “does not arise from a marriage.” 

Those additions, spearheaded by Democrats Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Republicans Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., were enough to pick up a debate-ending, filibuster-avoiding 12 Republican votes ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. 

President Biden praised the bipartisan nature of the vote and took time to thank the lawmakers involved in the negotiations.

"Importantly, the Senate’s passage of the Respect for Marriage Act is a bipartisan achievement," Biden wrote. "I’m grateful to the determined Members of Congress — especially Senators Baldwin, Collins, Portman, Sinema, Tillis, and Feinstein — whose leadership has underscored that Republicans and Democrats together support the essential right of LGBTQI+ and interracial couples to marry."

Monday’s vote officially added those religious protections to the Respect for Marriage Act. Still, a large group of Republicans argued the protections still don’t go far enough, with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, proposing a further amendment that would “prohibit the federal government from retaliating against any person or group for adhering to sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions about marriage.” 

“In no way would my amendment impair the RFMA's ability to perform its simple, stated purpose: to protect same-sex marriage against an extremely unlikely scenario in which the Supreme Court one day decides to overturn Obergefell,” Lee wrote in part, referring to the 2015 Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges that protected the right to same-sex marriage. “My amendment adds protections without creating the type of zero-sum dynamic—a virtual tug-of-war between same-sex marriage and religious freedom—that would surely follow from the bill’s passage in its current form.” 

Texas Sen. John Cornyn agreed with Lee, saying on the Senate floor ahead of Monday’s vote that “it's not just individuals with deeply held religious beliefs who will have a target placed on their back, it is also religious institutions themselves.”

“This legislation does not move the needle in terms of the rights of same-sex couples. They can already marry in every state in the country. And this bill doesn't change that,” Cornyn continued, encouraging the Senate to allow further votes on more amendments proposed by his GOP colleagues. “All it will do is force religious organizations to make an impossible choice: abandon your beliefs or face the wrath of the U.S. government.”

Republicans negotiated votes on three GOP-backed amendments to the bill ahead of the final vote on Tuesday, including one from Lee, which would require a 60-vote threshold to pass.

The Respect for Marriage Act has a two-pronged goal, according to a bipartisan group of senators; first, to require the federal government to recognize marriages by law should they be legal in the state in which they were performed, and to “guarantee that valid marriages between two individuals are given full faith and credit, regardless of the couple’s sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.” 

It also repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman, which was nullified by the ruling in Obergefell, but is still on the books.

The bill does not, however, require states to change their laws in order to issue marriage licenses. It also ensures that religious non-profits will not be required to facilitate marriages that go against their beliefs, and further makes clear “that the bill does not require or authorize the federal government to recognize polygamous marriages.”