On Friday, June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that states weren’t allowed to ban same-sex couples from marrying, that the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution protected people’s fundamental right to choose who to marry. In a 5-4 decision, with one Republican-appointed justice (Anthony Kennedy) siding with the four justices appointed by Democratic presidents, the Supreme Court ruled that all levels of government had to treat same-sex relationships the same way that opposite-sex relationships were treated.
It was both a statement on equality for LGBTQ+ people as well as a declaration on the value of formal institutions. Same-sex couples could create families and have relationships before Obergefell; what the ruling changed was that the state would recognize those relationships and give them the legal benefits of marriage. It wasn’t – as the right often portrayed – an attack on an institution key to social cohesion; it was a demand on society that it change to accommodate and better protect LGBTQ+ people for the sake of fairness, because an institution isn’t something that can legitimately bring people together if entry is denied to an entire class of people for no logical reason.
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“They will always be the same, and they’ll still love you and all that, and I think that you still should love them,” said the 10-year-old kid.
Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority, made it clear that the only way to support the values of marriage is to let more people get married.
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“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family,” he wrote. “It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions.”
“They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”
Ten years later, we’re living in a time when someone can get elected to the White House on the promise of tearing things down, of wreaking indiscriminate havoc on social norms and institutions. The right went from fearing any kind of social change to shrugging as the president and his biggest donor destroyed years of relationships and trust built with other countries, federal workers, and the recipients of humanitarian aid that the U.S. would have their backs, all for the sake of saving a few dollars or trolling for lols.
In that context, it’s more necessary than ever to celebrate a legal decision that was fundamentally about bringing people together, one that both celebrated couples trying to form families and a minority that wants equal treatment under the law.
In an era when indiscriminate cynicism seems to get the most likes and views on social media, when longstanding rights like due process can be taken away at the whim of a former Fox News host appointed to a position they don’t understand, when Silicon Valley’s motto of “move fast and break things” is treated like a substitute for good governance, having faith in family and government protections can seem, at best, quaint.
But maybe that quaint notion is just powerful enough to remind us that believing in institutions that promote stability matters.
The June Edition of LGBTQ Nation celebrates the 10 years of Obergefell v. Hodges, the decision that legalized marriage equality in all 50 states. That moment was about optimism and trust in others.
Throughout the month, LGBTQ Nation writers will explore different aspects of what the past ten years have meant for the community. The June cover story will explore the friendship that grew from that case between the two people whose names were on it: Jim Obergefell and Richard Hodges.
We will be talking with lawyers about the fight for marriage rights and how that relates to the current fight for transgender rights. Writers will explore their personal thoughts on marriage… and divorce, itself a maligned social institution that can be important for people building the lives they want to live.
We’ll be looking at ways in which marriage rights could still be expanded, perhaps to include polyamorous relationships.
An anniversary is a chance to look back and examine how much has changed, as well as where we’re going. I hope the articles in the June Edition of LGBTQ Nation can drive a conversation forward about what progress actually looks like.
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