Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Ohio supreme court case that ruled that same-sex marriage was a fundamental right included in the 14th amendment, is being sent back to the Supreme Court. While in 2015 the case passed on a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court now stands at a much more conservative balance.
John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito, all of which voted against equal marriage rights, remain on the supreme court a decade later. Meanwhile, on the side of those who supported it, only Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan remain. The new editions to the supreme court since then are overwhelmingly conservative, with Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett putting the court at a 6-3 balance.
What this means is that it’s very likely that, like Roe v. Wade, the case will be overturned. After the case is overturned, much like abortion access, same-sex marriage will be put up to the states instead of being a fundamental right for all Americans. While this is obviously very unfortunate and harmful to thousands of people, what’s important to recognize is that this loss for the American people will not be unique.
Despite the work of hundreds of thousands of Americans who marched, petitioned, and advocated, and the millions of dollars that have gone to charities and fundraisers like the Trevor Project, who support the LGBT+ community, it’s clearly meaningless to our leaders.
Pres. Barrack Obama legalized gay marriage in 2015 with two years left in his presidency to enshrine it into law, but he didn’t. Then Pres. Joe Biden had four whole years to make any advancements on this issue, but he did nothing. American democrats and progressives have stood behind the LGBT+ community for decades, depicting themselves as the party of progress and change, soaking up votes, and then when they’re in power they don’t fulfill any of their promises or try to seriously help anyone.
The loss of marriage rights is not the only threat. Across the country LGBT+ people have not gained any fundamental protections against workplace and employment discrimination, the only tokens received being supreme court cases like this, which are clearly irrelevant and arbitrary. LGBT+ expression is being banned in schools and workplaces, books are being banned, states are instituting daily prayers and removing counselors from schools in favor of untrained chaplains not equipped to handle student’s issues and dangerous situations.
While homosexuality isn’t being recriminalized, as some in Trump’s white house have advocated for, removing equal marriage rights is the final step in totally erasing LGBT+ from public perception. LGBT+ young adults in repressive states will not have any kind of representation, no way to understand their feelings, and will have no qualified adults who they can ask for help.
It’s clear that democrats and liberal American progressives don’t care at all for the groups they court politically. For them the important thing was that they could talk about gay marriage and LGBT+ rights on the campaign trail rather than actually doing anything to help people while they’re in power. These pathetic displays of arrogance and carelessness only make it clearer that republicans and democrats are one in the same. They only mean to divide American society in half while manipulating all of us to support the exact same policy platform with no meaningful change ever coming to pass.
What needs to happen now is that any vulnerable group across the United States, whether they be economically, politically, socially, or culturally disadvantaged, need to come together in solidarity and stand together for fair and equal treatment. Our own government, not just in the last few weeks, not just since 2016, but for the last 20-30 years, has made it perfectly clear that they will not help us, no matter who we are, and no matter which party is in power.
Students at CMW need to recognize each other’s hardships, and treat each other fairly, not just based on sexuality but on every other metric. When they go out into the world after they graduate, they need to do the same to everyone they meet. The only thing we have left is each other, and that’s the only thing we have left that we have the ability to change, so that’s what we need to work towards. Helping each other and changing people’s minds rather than donating and stacking our hopes with a politician who smiles and says they appreciate our support.
