It's No Longer Obergefell v. Hodges ... It's Obergefell and Hodges

Richard Hodges was Director of the Ohio Department of Health from August 2014 to 2017 and a former Ohio Congressman, but he is best known being the defendant in the landmark civil rights case Obergefell v. Hodges, which he lost, resulting in the legalization of same-sex marriage  in this country.

Jim Obergefell is a gay man, who was married to John Arthur until Arthur’s death in 2013. After his husband’s death, James was not considered a surviving spouse because, well, gay, and so he took his case to court, and finally made it to the Supreme Court where he won and we won and marriage equality became the law of the land.

After that landmark case, oddly enough Hodges and Obergefell became friends, which leads us to today and the idea that a new Supreme Court Justice might, if a case is brought forth, vote to make same-sex marriage illegal in this country, or vote to legalize LGBTQ+ discrimination.

This week James Obergefell and Rick Hodges jointly announced that they oppose the nomination of right-wing extremist Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

During her confirmation hearings, Barrett merely stated that the Supreme Court’s decision re: Obergefell v Hodges exists, but refused to say if she agreed with it or if she thinks same-sex marriage should be illegal. She did say that her rulings as a Supreme Court Justice would be bound by the legal precedent established by Obergefell, and said she doubted any case trying to outlaw same-sex marriage would ever make it to the Supreme Court because lower courts would be bound by the same legal precedent.

But if it did make its way to SCOTUS … ? Amy was silent.

And she didn’t speak a word about the Supreme Court receiving cases seeking to chip away at same-sex marriage rights, like granting people the right to refuse service to same-sex couples because their ‘God’ told ‘em so. SCOTUS has yet to rule in the case of a Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because, again, a message from ‘God.’ And so, it remains an unresolved matter that the court will have to address during Barrett’s tenure.

So, our fight, the one we assumed was over with Obergefell v Hodges, is not over. Now we’ll have a religious zealot on the bench who may be a deciding vote in whether or not the United States of America will legalize hate against the LGBTQ+ community.

It might be an uphill battle, but we now have two men, James Obergefell and Richard Hodges, who fought this fight before, standing firmly on the right side of history.

Stand with them. Demand equality.

LGBTQ Nation