Biden to sign historic same-sex marriage bill at White House event – with guests including drag queens who perform at children’s hours

• President Joe Biden will sign the Respect for Marriage Act Tuesday afternoon in a ceremony attended by thousands on the White House South Lawn 
• The bill gives federal marriage protections to same-sex and interracial couples 
• Biden’s guest list included a number of prominent drag queens, who confirmed their attendance on social media 

President Joe Biden will sign the Respect for Marriage Act Tuesday afternoon in a ceremony attended by thousands on the White House South Lawn. 

The bill gives federal marriage protections to same-sex and interracial couples.

Biden’s guest list included a number of prominent drag queens, who confirmed their attendance on social media.

Drag queen Marti Gould Cummings shared their invitation on Instagram. 

‘To be a non binary drag artist invited to the White House is something I never imagined would happen. Thank you President & Dr. Biden for inviting me to this historic bill signing. Grateful doesn’t begin to express the emotions I feel,’ Cummings wrote. 

Brita Filter, who appeared on the 12th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, chimed in and said she was invited too. 

President Joe Biden will sign the Respect for Marriage Act Tuesday afternoon in a ceremony attended by thousands on the White House South Lawn. The White House was lit up in rainbow colors after in June 2015 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage 

Invited to the White House for the ceremony are Marti Gould Cummings (left) and Brita Filter (right). The Biden administration is showing support for drag artists as they became political fodder by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this summer and have been targeted by right-wing groups

Both Cummings and Filter have performed for young audiences, with Cummings routinely putting on kids shows in progressives communities like Provincetown, Massachusetts.  

Filter got some pushback for a performance she delivered at a ‘Pride Chapel’ in April, as she was asked to perform her drag show and then talk about queerness with a group of students from the progressive independent Episcopal school in the East Village. 

Some conservative students said that they were uncomfortable with the dancing and twerking in a church setting, according to The New York Post.

Biden’s backing of drag queens comes after Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – who could be his 2024 White House rival – tried to make drag shows a culture war issue earlier this year. 

DeSantis said he would be filing a complaint after a video showed a child in the audience of a Florida drag brunch, in which one of the queens was exposing naked, but clearly fake, large breasts. 

The queen covers up her breasts as she spots a child seated front row, according to a video shared by the conservative Libs of TikTok account. 

‘This is what a “family-friendly drag show” in a bar looks like,’ the post said. 

At a press conference in late July, DeSantis said ‘having kids involved in this is wrong. That is not consistent with our law and policy in the state of Florida’ and suggested that the restaurant in question, R House in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, could lose its liquor license. 

A statement from the restaurant’s owners called it a ‘misunderstanding.’ 

The White House’s support also comes as drag queens and LGBTQ establishments have been targeted by hard-right groups such as the Proud Boys and the Patriot Front. 

Last month in Colorado Springs, Colorado five people were killed when a gunman entered Club Q during a drag performance and started shooting. That followed the June 2016 shooting at Pulse nightclub, a LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, in which 49 people were killed. 

Previewing the bill signing from the podium Monday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre teased that there would be musical guests and entertainment at the South Lawn event, but wouldn’t give reporters more information than that. 

First lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will also attend. 

The legislation came about after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in a concurring opinion to Dobbs – which overturned Roe v. Wade in June – said that other cases based on the precedent that had been established in Roe should be revisited, including the 2015 landmark gay marriage decision Obergefell v. Hodges. 

The Respect for Marriage Act officially repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, the Clinton-era legislation that banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage. 

It requires the federal government to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages, codifying parts of Obergefell and the landmark 1967 case Loving v. Virginia. 

The House of Representatives passed the bill in July, with the help of 47 Republicans. 

The bill had more difficulty getting through the Senate, where 60 votes are needed for cloture, but eventually 12 Republicans signed on. 

The bill passed the Senate last last month after amendments were added to bolster religious protections and clarify that it did not legalize polygamous marriages. 

The House then passed the updated version on Thursday. 

Source: Read Full Article