12 Republican Senators Just Voted to Advance Same-Sex Marriage Protections Act

A bill once considered dead on arrival will move forward after the Senate voted on Wednesday to advance the Respect for Marriage Act, a piece of legislation that would provide federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages.

The measure advanced in a 62-37 vote, with 12 Republicans voting in favor, allowing it to clear the required 60-vote hurdle to prevent a filibuster.

The Republican Senators who voted in favor of advancing the Respect for Marriage Act include: Mitt Romney, Joni Ernst, Cynthia Lummis, Roy Blunt, Shelley Moore Capito, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman, Dan Sullivan, Thom Tillis, Todd Young, Susan Collins.

Romney's vote in favor of advancing the bill came hours after the Mormon church, of which he is a member, announced its support for RFMA.

"We believe this approach is the way forward," the Mormon church said in a statement. "As we work together to preserve the principles and practices of religious freedom together with the rights of LGBTQ individuals, much can be accomplished to heal relationships and foster greater understanding."

In his own statement, Romney said the legislation "provides important protections for religious liberty — measures which are particularly important to protect the religious freedoms of our faith-based institutions."

Romney added that, while he believes "in traditional marriage, Obergefell is and has been the law of the land upon which LGBTQ individuals have relied. This legislation provides certainty to many LGBTQ Americans, and it signals that Congress — and I — esteem and love all of our fellow Americans equally."

In a statement released Wednesday, Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt said he, too, supported the measure with the addition of its religious liberty amendment, saying it would accomplish two things: "People who are legally married in one state have the same protections and responsibilities in any other state that are offered to and required of marriages."

He added that the legislation would "protect religious organizations from retaliation by federal agencies due to their views on marriage."

While West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito had said she was undecided on the measure in July, she voted in favor of advancement on Wednesday.

"The Supreme Court has made a decision here and the question is, is this necessary?" Capito said of the RFMA in a virtual press briefing in July, per the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. "I am going to wait until that legislation comes before us in the Senate before I make a determination and then I will take a look at it."

Maine Republican Susan Collins — who was one of the bill's sponsors — said on the Senate floor on Wednesday the bill "recognizes the unique and extraordinary importance of marriage on an individual and societal level."

"It would help promote equality, prevent discrimination and protect the rights of Americans in same-sex and interracial marriages. It would accomplish these goals while maintaining, and indeed strengthening, important religious liberty and conscience protections," Collins said, according to a USA Today report.

As David Stacy, government affairs director for the Human Rights Campaign, earlier explained to PEOPLE, the RFMA would accomplish a few goals, including repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that said the federal government will not recognize any same-sex marriages performed by states. (DOMA is currently unenforceable thanks to landmark Supreme Court decisions United States v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges, though it still exists on paper, meaning it could be reinstated if those rulings were overturned by the current court's conservative stronghold.)

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Democrats in the Senate had made protecting gay marriage a key priority in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that legalized a woman's right to an abortion.

In a concurring opinion on the Roe decision, Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court should reconsider Griswold v. Connecticut, Lawrence V. Texas, and Obergefell v. Hodge — the rulings that currently protect the right to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction, the right to a same-sex relationship, and the right to same-sex marriage. Thomas' opinion raised eyebrows that Obergefell could be on the chopping block.

But not all legislators supported the attempts to protect same-sex marriage.

One notable "No" vote came from Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has stayed relatively quiet on the issue in recent weeks.