Obergefell Insists More Victories Needed on Gay Rights To Be Secure`

Jim Obergefell, the civil rights activist who was the lead plaintiff in the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States, believes we need to secure more victories to be secure as full United States citizens.

The Sandusky Register:

Obergefell, 56, who lives in Perkins Township, was invited to come to the White House for the signing ceremony but could not attend because he had taken a trip to London, England, “taking a break from reality.”

He recently spent months running for the Ohio House but lost to incumbent state Rep. D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron.

Obergefell said all the new law does is require all states to recognize any marriage that was performed in another state.

While gay marriage currently is legal in all 50 states, the new law means that if that is reversed by the Supreme Court, same-sex couples could still be required to travel to another state to get married — as Obergefell himself had to do, to get married to his late partner, Jim Arthur. The two tied the knot in Maryland in 2013, shortly before Arthur’s death from ALS.

Ohio is one of the states that still has a “defense of marriage” law on the books that defines marriage as being between one man and one woman. If the Obergefell decision was overturned, Ohio same-sex couples might have to go out of state again to get married, Obergefell said.

That raises the possibility that, once again, “we could be treated as second-class citizens without the same rights as any other couple,” Obergefell said.

When he signed the bill, Biden noted that the new law does provide a measure of protection for same-sex marriages.

“For most of our nation’s history, we denied interracial couples and same-sex couples from these protections. We failed. We failed to treat them with an equal dignity and respect,” Biden said. “And now, the law requires that interracial marriages and same-sex marriage must be recognized as legal in every state in the nation.”

The U.S. Supreme Court issued its 6-3 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision on June 24 this year, overturning a constitutional right to abortion in the U,S. and sending the issue back to the states.

One of the justices in the majority, Clarence Thomas, wrote that the court should reconsider the Obergefell decision and decisions dealing with contraception and other rights.

Other justices in the anti-abortion decision appeared to distance themselves from Thomas.

Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority opinion, wrote, “And to ensure that our decision is not misunderstood or mischaracterized, we emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”

Obergefell says he doesn’t trust the current “extreme, right-wing Supreme Court” to protect other rights.

“If my case came before this current Supreme Court, we would have lost,” he said. “Several of those justices during their confirmation hearings stated under oath they considered Roe v. Wade settled law.”

When Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, he thanked a number of lawmakers by name, including U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, the Ohio Republican who joined Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown in voting for the measure.

Portman leaves office after this month. A few days ago, he hosted his 326th press call with Ohio reporters, and the Register asked him about the Respect for Marriage Act.

“I’m proud of my colleagues who reached across the aisle and worked hard to make sure this legislation passed, both in the Senate and the House. This was not easy, but we did the right thing for the country in my view. The majority of the American people want this issue settled,” Portman said.

“And now this bill is in law, millions of married couples are going to get the certainty and peace of mind they deserve by having their marriage protected. In order to have certainty, we have to have legislation, and that’s what this bill does,” he said.

The measure provides certainty to existing family relationships, and it also has new religious liberty protections, Portman said.

The U.S. Census Bureau released figures in 2020 that showed more than half a million households are made up of same-sex married couples.

Obergefell said existing laws on the books that oppose gay marriage should be repealed, and laws should protect the right of gay couples and gay people to obtain the same rights as anyone else, such as being able to hire a baker to bake a wedding cake.

“We are still targeted. We are still demeaned. We are still demonized. We are still denied equality in our nation,” he said.