editorials
Support the ‘Respect for Marriage Act’
those issues through federal legislation, in an
eff ort to establish a national standard.

Last week, House Democrats, joined by 47
Republicans, passed the Respect for Marriage Act
by a vote of 267-157.

The act’s chief purpose is to repeal the Defense
of Marriage Act, which makes same-sex marriage
illegal. That law was overturned by the court in
its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision. Under the
new law, same-sex marriage would be permitted
under federal law and would prohibit states from
discrimination against marriage decisions of two
people “on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity or
national origin.”
The Respect for Marriage Act is not about
holy wedlock. It is about civil rights. And since a
resounding 70% of U.S. adults say that same-sex
unions should be recognized by law — a major-
ity that includes 83% of Democrats and 55% of
Republicans — it is time for the Senate to act.

A bill similar to the House bill, sponsored by Sen.

Ukraine’s First Lady
U krainian first lady Olena
Zelenska was in Washington,
D.C., last week, where she worked
to reawaken awareness about
Ukraine’s plight in its ongoing
efforts to defend against an
unprovoked, brutal Russian attack.

She asked Congress for addi-
tional defense systems to block
Russian missiles and spoke with
fi rst lady Jill Biden, Secretary
of State Antony Blinken and
U.S. Agency for International
Development head Samantha
Ukrainian fi rst lady Olena Zelenska addresses
Power, among others.

members of Congress on Capitol Hill in
During her congressional visit,
Washington, D.C.

Zelenska displayed highly emo-
tional evidence of the toll Russian
airstrikes are taking on her nation, and particularly Americans. Coverage has slipped from front-page
its children. Her heart-wrenching photo presen- headlines to less-prominent news stories buried
tation included pictures of a 4-year-old girl killed among many others. Perhaps it’s the summer mal-
in an air strike that badly wounded her mother, a aise, or maybe we have become numb to the vio-
girl in a pink headband shot by Russian soldiers, lence. And maybe it’s just hard to remain focused
a 3-year-old boy learning how to use a prosthetic on a war taking place halfway around the world.

limb and one showing three generations of a fam-
Which begs the question of whether Zelenska
ily — grandmother, mother and baby daughter — is the right person to help recapture the world’s
killed in an air strike.

attention and support for war-weary Ukraine?
The carnage in Ukraine from the punishing
Zelenska was a scriptwriter for her husband,
attacks by Russian forces is undeniable. But, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who
unfortunately, we have reached the point in was an actor and comedian before winning the
the ongoing war where the daily devastation presidency in 2019. They have been married since
has become just another news story for most 2003. During her husband’s rise to political promi-
12 JULY 28, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and co-sponsored by
Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rob
Portman of Ohio, needs eight more Republican
senators to pass the fi libuster threshold. But those
Republican votes may be diffi cult to fi nd.

While Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is leaning
toward support, others like Sen. Marco Rubio of
Florida call the House bill a “stupid waste of time,”
and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah was joined by oth-
ers in seeking to defl ect consideration when he
said, “I don’t think we need to lose sleep over it
unless there were a development that suggested
the law was going to be changed.”
Romney’s approach is wrong. As we learned
from the Dobbs decision on the right to an abor-
tion, it is always too early until it’s too late. And
the disturbing yet honest warning from Justice
Thomas is precisely the kind of “development”
that should cause the Senate to act, and to
enshrine in law the right to marriage that most of
this country considers self-evident. JE
nence, she has kept mostly out of
the spotlight, describing herself
as “a non-public person.” But the
war forced Zelenska into a more
prominent role, and she seems to
have embraced it.

Zelenska has earned good
reviews for her advocacy. She
received a standing ovation from
Congress for statements such
as, “Our family represents the
whole world for us, and we do
everything to preserve it. We cry
when we cannot save it. And we
remain completely broken when
our world is destroyed by war.”
There is precedent for a fi rst
spouse to play an important role
in history. Eleanor Roosevelt comes to mind, as
she was once called “The First Lady of the World”
by President Harry S Truman in recognition of her
human rights advocacy and achievements. Eva
Peron is another example, as her 1947 “Rainbow
Tour” of Europe helped Argentina improve its
global relations.

Whether history remembers Zelenska in the
same vein remains to be seen. But regardless of
how she is portrayed, we cannot ignore the fact
that her tragic message of continuing death and
devastation in Ukraine needs to remain front and
center in our international consciousness. Her
visit was an urgent summer wake-up call. JE
Saul Loeb - Pool via CNP/CNP / Polaris/Newscom
L ast month, when the Supreme Court overturned
Roe v. Wade and reversed 50 years of abortion
rights jurisprudence, the dissent predicted that the
court’s reasoning could be used to challenge other
cases involving individual freedoms, including the
right to use contraception and the right to marry a
same-sex partner.

The dissent’s warning was clear: “Either the
mass of the majority’s opinion is hypocrisy, or
additional constitutional rights are under threat. It
is one or the other.” And while the majority opinion
promised that was not the case, Justice Clarence
Thomas said otherwise — and suggested the con-
servative majority of the court might not be done
with decisions that are ”demonstrably erroneous”
and which the court has a duty to “correct.”
Considering that large majorities of Americans
support the right to an abortion, contraception,
gay marriage and interracial marriage — all rights
that were considered well settled until this year
— there have been concerted eff orts to address