SALT LAKE CITY — Senator Mitt Romney said progress is being made on negotiations over a bill that would enshrine marriage equality in federal law.
In a brief interview with FOX 13 News on Monday, Sen. Romney said a point is ensuring that "religious liberties" are protected in the Respect for Marriage Act.
"Still working to make sure that if there’s going to be a Respect for Marriage Act that’s passed, that bill also has to include respect for religious liberty," he said. "So I'm working on the religious liberty front, and working with other senators to make sure that would be included and that makes it more likely that, if you will, a deal where there’s a win for both sides is incorporated."
Same-sex marriage was legalized in 2015 in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court opinion. But the Respect for Marriage Act was pushed in response to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' comments in an opinion overturningRoe v. Wade, suggesting the nation's top court reconsider it.
All four Republican members of Utah's congressional delegation in the House of Representatives surprised people by voting for the Respect for Marriage Act. In an other sign of a political shift, a recent poll by theDeseret Newsand the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah found that 72% of those surveyed believe same-sex marriages should be recognized by the law as valid.
Sen. Romney said discussions on the bill are making progress.
"Steps just made over the weekend that make things a little more clear that religious liberty will be protected," he told FOX 13 News. "But it’s going to have to be a solid protection for religious freedom or it won’t pass."
