How senators 'defied political gravity' on same-sex marriage

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

59% : "As we talked to senators we found a real openness to the bill, but concerns about religious liberty and consciousness protections," Collins said.
47% : The House was voting that July afternoon on Democratic legislation to protect same-sex and interracial marriages in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the federal right to an abortion.
47% : Not only because of the 2015 Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, but because increasing numbers of people -- daughters, sons, friends, staffers -- were openly gay and starting families, living normal lives.
46% : The bill, which requires states to legally recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, would not have done that.
46% : Looking back on her four decades of advocacy -- she was elected to local office in the mid-1980s, after she had already come out as gay -- she says she always thought she would live to see marriage equality.
45% : She excitedly walked over to Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who was also on the Senate floor and had been one of the first Republican senators to come out in favor of same-sex marriage.
43% : But in talking to Republicans, they quickly found that the biggest concern was religious liberty, and whether the bill would penalize private institutions or groups that did not want to perform same-sex marriages or provide services to same-sex couples.
42% : A main concern was that a church or organization could have its tax-exempt status revoked if it didn't perform a same-sex marriage.

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