President Biden Signs Historic Same-Sex Marriage Bill: 'Today Is a Good Day'

President Joe Biden on Tuesday officially signed the Respect for Marriage Act, affirming federal acknowledgement of both same-sex and interracial marriages.

Biden signed the landmark bill on the South Lawn of the White House, following the House of Representatives' final approval of the legislation in a 258-169 vote last Thursday morning. The U.S. Senate passed the bill last month, with 12 Republicans joining Democrats in support.

Biden, 80, was joined at the signing by guests including Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting, civil rights attorney Philip Hirschkop (who represented  Mildred and Richard Loving in the landmark interracial marriage case Loving v. Virginia) and plaintiffs from the landmark same-sex marriage case Obergefell v. Hodges.

Grammy Award winners Sam Smith and Cyndi Lauper also made surprise appearances at the bill-signing ceremony. Smith sang "Stay With Me" while Lauper sang "True Colors" ahead of the legislation's signing.

Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty President Biden Holds Respect For Marriage Act Ceremony

In opening remarks ahead of the signing, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke of the significance of the moment and noted that he was wearing the same tie he had worn the day his daughter got married to a woman, calling the moment "one of the happiest days of my life."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, said she "was overcome with emotion bringing down the gavel on this legislation," adding that Biden's stroke of the pen would help ensure every American has the right to be married.

"This is about respect, this is about taking pride, and it's about time that we do so," Pelosi said.

Wearing his signature aviator sunglasses, President Biden said, "Today is a good day" in opening his own remarks.

Biden continued, drawing on a now-infamous appearance he made as vice president on Meet the Press in 2012: "Today, I sign the Respect for Marriage Act into law. Deciding who to marry is one of the most profound decisions a person can make. As I've said before, and some of you might remember, on a certain TV show ten years ago ... marriage is a simple proposition: who do you love and will you be loyal to that person you love? It's not more complicated than that."

Elsewhere in his speech, Biden touched on the recent release of WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russian custody, noting that her wife, Cherelle Griner remarked that her family was "whole again" with Griner's return home.

"My fellow Americans, that all-consuming, life altering love of commitment: that's marriage," Biden said before sitting down to sign the bill.

Upon signing the bill, Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" could be heard as those looking on applauded the bill becoming law.

RELATED: Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer Celebrate After Congress Passes Historic Respect for Marriage Act

The president released a statement after the Senate's November vote and said, "Love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love."

He added at the time, "Today's bipartisan vote brings the United States one step closer to protecting that right in law. The Respect for Marriage Act will ensure that LGBTQI+ couples and interracial couples are respected and protected equally under federal law, and provide more certainty to these families since the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs."

Continued Biden: "I want to thank the Members of Congress whose leadership has sent a strong message that Republicans and Democrats can work together to secure the fundamental right of Americans to marry the person they love. I urge Congress to quickly send this bill to my desk where I will promptly sign it into law."

RELATED: Republican Sen. Thom Tillis Expects Marriage Equality Bill to Pass in the Senate: 'We've Made Progress'

The Respect for Marriage Act officially appeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which defined marriage as involving a man and woman and gave states the authority to refuse recognition of same-sex couples who had married.

It was first introduced in 2009 and, though it passed the House and was moved to the Senate floor in 2011, the Senate vote never occurred. After Obergefell v. Hodges — a landmark civil rights case that reached the Supreme Court, legalized same-sex marriage nationwide on June 26, 2015 — there seemed to be no reason to continue pushing for it — until the events of this year.

On June 24, in the most significant unraveling of human rights in modern history, the heavily conservative Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating pregnant people's constitutional right to abortion and paving a path to come for contraceptives and same-sex relationships next.

"The right to privacy, that's something we all deserve as human beings," Jim Obergefell, namesake plaintiff in Obergefell v. Hodges, recently told PEOPLE. "It's something that our constitution should keep sacrosanct, but [overturning Roe] takes that away."

In a concurring opinion on the Roe case, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court should reconsider Griswold v. Connecticut, Lawrence v. Texas, and Obergefell — 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.

RELATED: Senate Passes Respect for Marriage Act in Heartening Bipartisan Vote

From Thomas' concurring opinion: "... in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is 'demonstrably erroneous,' ... we have a duty to 'correct the error' established in those precedents..."

Despite the conservative justice's opinion, national polls showed record-high support for marriage equality.

"The support for marriage equality is so consistent across poll after poll after poll," David Stacy, government affairs director for the Human Rights Campaign, told PEOPLE in an earlier interview. "The numbers are ticking up and they're sticking."

RELATED VIDEO: Jim Obergefell Reacts to Roe v. Wade Being Overturned: 'Gross Government Overreach'

In July, the House passed RFMA in a 267-157 vote, with 47 Republican representatives joining Democrats in defending marriage equality.

Then, on Nov. 29, a dozen Republicans joined Democrats in passing the bill in the Senate, including Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming as well as Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, according to the Associated Press.

Because the Senate made some minor tweaks to the bill in order to get Republicans' support, the new RFMA language needed to be reapproved by the House before Biden signed it into law.

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The new law is not able to require state governments to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples or grant them state-level marriage benefits, as states have the ultimate authority over marriage benefits, second only to the Supreme Court.

What it can do, according to language previously released, is "require the federal government to recognize a marriage between two individuals if the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed" and "guarantee that valid marriages between two individuals are given full faith and credit, regardless of the couple's sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin."