The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
Republican Ohio U.S. Senate nominee J.D. Vance would oppose legislation to codify the right to marriage for same-sex couples, according to Mission: America, a Columbus based non-profit which bills itself as a ministry.
In a joint statement with Ohio Value Voters, Mission: America president Linda Harvey criticized the Ohio Republican congressmen who voted to pass the Respect for Marriage Act in the House.
“Homosexual couples embrace an ancient sin often involving high risk practices,” Harvey wrote. “These couples are never blessed with their own children, just one of the many limitations of such relationships. But homosexuals in America are often quite willing to corrupt other people’s children.”
Harvey went on to insist it’s actually the LGBTQ movement that is “intolerant,” and that they are responsible for everything from porn to “unnatural identities.” Separately, Harvey is concerned about witchcraft invading the church.
In his response to Mission: America, Vance explained he’d vote no on the Respect for Marriage Act if he were in office. According to their press release, he went on to state “the religious liberty piece of this is very bad.” No language in the bill directly implicates religion, and Vance’s campaign didn’t provide additional comment to explain his statement.
The measure, HR 8404, passed the House last week with broad bipartisan support. In all, 47 Republicans backed the proposal, including Ohio Republican Reps. Mike Carey, Dave Joyce, Mike Turner and Anthony Gonzalez.
Vance’s opposition to the bill marks the second time in a little over a month that the Republican nominee has taken a stance against notable, bipartisan legislative efforts. In June, he told a Breitbart radio show he would not support the gun control package negotiated by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-CT, and John Cornyn, R-TX.
At the time, Vance highlighted misgivings about so-called red flag laws, which allow courts to temporarily seize firearms after determining someone is a danger to themselves or others. Vance dismissed the provisions, calling them a “slippery slope.”
Murphy and Cornyn’s legislation, which was signed into law by President Biden late last month, does not impose a national red flag law. Instead, it sets aside federal funding to assist with administration if states choose to impose red flag laws of their own.
Ohio’s outgoing U.S. Senator Rob Portman, who Vance is running to replace, was one of the ten Republican senators to initially sign on to that gun control framework, signaling the legislation had a real shot at passage. He’s also one of two Republican co-sponsors of the Senate version of the Respect for Marriage Act.
Because of the Senate’s filibuster rules, Portman and other supporters will again need 10 Republicans to back the bill to bring it to a vote. In a press call this week Portman invoked Republican support in the House and emphasized the measure only codifies the “status quo.” Still, he stuck to cautious optimism.
“More than a million Americans in same-sex marriages and their families rely on that. It makes it clear that as a matter of federal law, just as is the status quo, that same-sex marriages will be given recognition across the United States,” Portman said.
“My hope is that the Senate will take it up and pass it, and send it to the president,” he said. “I don’t know the timing of that.”
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