How Sen. Tammy Baldwin built a coalition to pass the Respect for Marriage Act

In a video interview with Isthmus reporters Tuesday, Baldwin reviewed her work over the past several months to build a bipartisan coalition

by Isthmus Staff

November 30, 2022

5:00 PM

Kenneth Burns

In July, when the U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the Respect for Marriage Act, which requires the federal government to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial marriages, Sen. Tammy Baldwin was energized.

"I remember being on the Senate floor when I got that news and going over to some of my colleagues saying, 'Hey! Did you see what the House just did? And, frankly, a bunch of Republicans from your state voted for this! And they'll have your back!'" Baldwin said Tuesday night during a video conversation with Isthmus reporters.

Baldwin, the first openly LGBTQ U.S. senator, has been credited with building a bipartisan coalition in the Senate that led to Tuesday's passage of the measure in that body, ultimately convincing 12 Republicans to join her and all of her Democratic colleagues. By Tuesday night, she was hopeful that the House would approve the Senate's version and that President Joe Biden would sign it "maybe by next week, maybe the week after."

In her interview with Isthmus editor Judith Davidoff and publisher Jason Joyce, Baldwin reviewed the steps involved in moving the Respect for Marriage Act through the Senate. She also discussed her history of activism on gay issues, which dates to her time on the Dane County Board in the 1980s and 1990s.

Baldwin also addressed her support for the controversial decision to bring F-35 fighter planes to Madison, the Democrats' performance in the midterm elections earlier in November, and her close friendship with the late Dick Wagner, the former county supervisor and gay rights pioneer.

"He was an out, proud gay man and one of the earliest in our nation to be elected, running as an out gay man," Baldwin said. "He probably is one of the first dozen worldwide, which also says a lot about the progress made between 1980 and today.... We've achieved several important advances."

View video of the interview here:

An Isthmus Conversation with Sen. Tammy Baldwin

Comments (2)

Comment Feed

Baldwin Support for F-35 Fighter Jets is Sad

There are many Madison residents opposed to the deployment of the F-35 fighter jets to Truax Field in Madison. We are saddened by Tammy Baldwin's support for these jets, and her unwillingness to even talk with us. Listening to this interview, I think she made some false or misleading statements. Here are my corrections:

1. Baldwin is protecting Truax as a place a employment. She could help us all if she found a new mission for the 115th fighter wing at Truax other than training fighter jet pilots. There are 44 different missions available for the air national guard that could be beneficial for all of us. For the $1.7 billion to be spent on the jets we could build a factory and employ thousands more people than Truax. For the same cost, the new Tesla factory in Austin will employ more than 5,000 people.

2. Baldwin said commercial jets get the most noise complaints. This is meaningless. If we believe in science, we don't rely on complaints to tell us there are noise impacts. Science tells us the existing noise exposure is already affecting our children's education, and the physical and mental health of residents. The louder and more frequent F-35 fighter jets will only worse these impacts.

3. Baldwin said Madison residents will receive noise mitigation so noise exposure may actually be reduced. This is false. If you want to go outside, or walk to your school, abatement provides no help. The first phase of the county airport noise abatement study has been released and comments are being accepted until December 10th. The study uses the outdated 50-year old daily average FAA noise standard so only those living close to the airport might receive abatement funding, depending on the whims of the county airport. There will be no noise mitigation for the 60,000 people living 3 miles of Truax on the east and north sides of Madison.

4. Baldwin said Truax construction for the F-35 jets is helping cleanup the PFAS contamination at Truax. This is false. With DNR blessing, contaminated groundwater pumped from the construction site has been returned to the soil. Construction doesn't affect the extensive contamination of the base and county airport which is not being fully investigated and cleaned up, and continues to leach into Starkweather Creek and the Yahara chain of lakes.

5. Baldwin says Truax was most qualified to receive F-35 jets. However, this decision back in 2016 did not include any consideration of environmental impacts. Truax was the worse site when environmental impacts are considered. These include the 1,000's of urban residents impacted by noise, the unmitigated PFAS contamination in our drinking water and lakes, and the fact that the greatest impacts would fall on the low-income and minority residents we force to live next to the country airport and Truax. The EIS evaluating the environmental impacts was completed years after Truax had already been selected, and simply rubber stamped the Air Force decision to deploy these jets to Madison.

Steve Klafka more than 2 years ago

Baldwin should oppose the F-35

I am disappointed in Senator Baldwin's position on the F-35 for the reasons stated by Steve Klafka. I was also surprised by Isthmus host Judith Davidoff's seeming reluctance to ask Senator Baldwin about the F-35 and making it sound like this is only a concern in Madison. We have peace groups around the state and nation including Code Pink who oppose this offensive weapon on for a number of reasons including but not exclusively that it doesn't work very well. will costs a weapons breaking record 1.2 trillion over the life of the machine. This money that should be used for domestic needs health care for all, efforts to protect us from COVID, funds for efforts to respond to global climate change and so on. Also I would have thought Judith would have recalled the article they ran by Dylan Brogan on the negative effects of the F-35 for the people in Burlington.

Harry Richardson more than 2 years ago