KANSAS CITY, Mo. — To understand the significance of the Respect for Marriage Act, you have to go back a few years.
"Before 2015," said Lance Pierce, a queer advocate in Kansas City. "It was really just limiting the capacity of the way queer people dream about their lives. You think, 'Oh I'll never really be able to get married.' Or maybe, 'I'll just never be able to have children, or have that life that I've kind of always wanted.'"
Pierce says that's what his life was before same-sex marriage was federally legalized through a Supreme Court order.
Madeline Johnson is an attorney involved both professionally and personally in LGBTQ issues.
She's kept a close eye on Missouri's gay and trans-focused legislation for years.
"I love the respect for marriage act on the one hand," she said. "On the other hand, it doesn't go quite as far as I would like it to go."
This new act, now passed by Congress, awaits President Joe Biden's signature.
It protects states from discriminating already validated marriages, or future marriages in states where it's legal.
It doesn't stop states like Kansas and Missouri from reverting back to their pre-2015 laws restricting it.
"I think what we need to make sure what we're doing as a community is not taking this and putting it on a shelf and taking it for granted because as we've seen," Pierce said. "It's always up for grabs."
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