MILWAUKEE — The Respect For Marriage Act passed a major hurdle in the Senate on Wednesday, passing a test vote 62-37. The bill, if passed, would a layer of protection for same-sex and interracial married couples.
After the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year, there's been fear the same could happen with other landmark decisions including Loving v. Virginia (prohibits states from banning marriage between individuals of different races) and Obergefell v. Hodges (prohibits states from outlawing and refusing to recognize same-sex marriages).
The legislation is championed by Wisconsin's Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin. During Wednesday's vote, she said, "I believe that there is an urgency to pass the Respect for Marriage Act in order to heal such division and provide certainties to married interracial and same-sex couples. That the protections, rights, and responsibilities that flow from their marriages will endure."
Wisconsin's Republican Senator Ron Johnson said earlier this year that he saw no reason to oppose the bill, but today he voted against advancing it.
TMJ4 has reached out to Senator Johnson about his vote but has not heard back as of this writing.
The bill has already passed in the House. There's no date set for the Senate's final vote, but it's likely to happen after Thanksgiving.
For Gerald Hyler and Gatlin Dresidan, signing the bill into law can't come soon enough.
"It would be one less thing to worry about," Dresidan said.
Dresidan and Hyler met more than nine years ago on Facebook.
"We were in a mutual group together and he commented on a picture of mine and said 'nice smile.' There were tons of men that said something about the picture, but he stuck out," Dresidan recalls.
After five years of dating, they tied the knot in 2018 in front of about 250 friends and family. Marriage is something Hyler had always wanted.
"My parents were married for nearly 50 years," Hyler said." So, that's what I knew and I wanted to mimic that as much as I could."
Their marriage is possible because of the 2015 Supreme Court Decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.
But earlier this year, they saw just how quickly it could all go away.
"When Roe v. Wade was actually overturned, I did think about gay marriage. I did think about our marriage. Yes, it could be overturned anytime, any place. And that scares the heck out of me," Hyler said.
Now, they're hoping for that extra federal protection for their family and their life.
Dresidan said, "It's not about being treated special or anything like that because we treat each other special enough. We don't need anybody else to take care of that. We just want to make sure that we have the rights that everybody else has."
