President Biden Signs Respect for Marriage Act

March 29, 2023

2022 was a year of tragedy and triumph. On November 19, a gunman took five lives and injured more than two dozen at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub and center of community in Colorado Springs. This attack was the heartbreaking culmination of a year marked by intensifying rhetoric from opponents of equality and an unprecedented wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation across the states.

As we mourned the lives lost and shattered at Club Q, we still found cause for hope – and even celebration. On December 13, President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, ensuring critical protections for more than 700,000 LGBTQ couples and families. This victory put a capstone on more than 50 years of bipartisan advocacy and public education that has persuaded Americans of every faith and political affiliation that LGBTQ couples and families are built on the same foundation of love as their own.

2022 offered other reasons to celebrate. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf signed an executive order restricting conversion therapy – protecting 110,000 LGBTQ youth. In Georgia, a U.S. district court ruled that employers can’t deny coverage for gender-affirming care in their health plans – protecting 57,000 trans Georgians. And from coast to coast, a record-setting “Rainbow Wave” ushered more than 435 LGBTQ elected leaders into federal, state, and local office.