President Joe Biden has signed a law recognising same-sex marriage in the US and said he has addressed the error of a “Supreme Court gone to extremes” and the need to “protect transgender children”.
“Love is love, rights are rights, justice is justice. These are fundamental things that are important to Americans,” Biden said.
The signing ceremony took place on the White House lawn. Biden thanked members of Congress who had been involved in crafting the rule. The president stressed that the document also recognises interracial marriage, which has been banned at some point in American history.
Biden said the US supreme court had gone to extremes in allowing the assessment that led to the need for the law.
“Congress is reacting because the supreme court has gone to extremes and taken a right away from millions of Americans that has existed for half a century,” he said.
Biden also spoke out in defence of “transgender children”. He said their rights are threatened by proposed laws at state levels that would criminalise doctors who provide gender reassignment services to children.
“We need to protect these children so they know they are loved, we are on their side and saying they can look for themselves,” Biden said.
The US Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that all states must recognise same-sex marriages based on the Bill of Rights, but in a 2022 dissenting opinion on a decision to deny a constitutional right to abortion, a judge said the ruling should be reviewed. The law passed affirms Americans’ right to same-sex marriage.