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Stop Federal Lawmakers From Forcing Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ On The States! Tell your Senators to vote NO.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Conservative and Republican voters vehemently oppose so-called “bipartisan” legislation to enshrine same-sex “marriage” in federal law, and their opposition hardens the more they learn about it, according to a recent survey commissioned by the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Forty-seven House Republicans joined Democrats in July to pass the so-called “Respect for Marriage Act” (RMA), which would repeal the longstanding (but unenforced) Defense of Marriage Act (which recognized marriage as a man-woman union in federal law and protected states’ rights to do the same), federally recognize any “marriage” lawfully performed by any state, and force every state to recognize any “marriage” of any other state “between 2 individuals,” without regard for “the sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin of those individuals”; and contained language potentially obliging the federal government to recognize polygamous unions.

For months, tensions swirled over whether 10 Republicans would join Democrats to pass the RMA in the Senate in order to send it to President Joe Biden’s desk, with conservative and pro-family groups working to lobby against it. In mid-November, supporters unveiled amended details meant to satisfy moderate Republicans, including clarification that the RMA would not lay groundwork for recognizing polygamy and purportedly affirming the religious liberty and conscience rights of religious nonprofits. Conservatives warned that the changes would not adequately protect private citizens from being coerced into affirming homosexual unions.

Nevertheless, the Senate voted 62-37 on November 16 to clear the filibuster threshold on the amended RMA, with 12 Republicans joining all Democrats. Those same Republicans joined Democrats Tuesday for a final vote passing it out of the Senate. Because the bill’s language differs from that passed in July, it must now go back to the House for an additional vote, which it is expected to pass, before being signed into law by President Joe Biden.

According to a survey of 2,000 likely voters in Indiana, Iowa, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming conducted by OnMessage Inc., right-of-center voters’ support for the RMA “is significantly lower than the national media coverage would have you believe,” and “when voters are given more information of the impacts of the bill, support slips even further.”

Forty-seven percent of overall respondents opposed the RMA, versus 41% supporting. Opinion was more lopsided among politically-aligned respondents, with 70% of Republicans and 73% of conservatives opposing the bill. 

“We then informed voters about the impacts the bill would have on religious liberty and opposition only solidified,” OnMessage adds. “When informed that this bill would encourage lawsuits against religious organizations for not participating in gay marriages, 53% of respondents said this would make them less likely to support the bill, including 46% who said it made them much less likely to support. In fact, for every message tested in this survey, a majority of respondents said they were less likely to support the bill given the information.”

“It is clear that it will take more than a naming misdirect to convince the GOP base that this bill is not a threat to their religious liberty,” the polling firm concludes.

Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Marco Rubio of Florida, and James Lankford of Oklahoma offered amendments that would have given the RMA more credible religious liberty protections (while leaving intact the core issue of federally codifying marriage redefinition), but they were rejected.

Scores of conservative, religious, and pro-family voices have rallied against the RMA, with previous polling indicating that supporting the measure would alienate Republicans (which is presumably why the Senate vote was delayed until after the midterm congressional elections). 

Nevertheless, with the reelections of Mitch McConnell to lead Republicans in the Senate and Kevin McCarthy in the House—and RMA supporters recently elected to other party leadership roles—the GOP appears poised to continue its current trajectory on marriage for the foreseeable future, unless new leaders are able to marshal enough political capital to force a different direction in future elections.

Stop Federal Lawmakers From Forcing Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ On The States! Tell your Senators to vote NO.

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