Why Are We Still Fighting for Marriage Equality?
Remember the jubilation outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 26 when the SCOTUS ruled on Obergefell v. Hodges, making same-sex marriage legal across the nation?
Remember when Justice Anthony Kennedy, one of the conservative justices appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, wrote in his beautiful majority opinion “No longer may this liberty be denied. No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were.”
Justice Kennedy wrote that marriage is a “keystone of our social order,” and said that the gay and lesbian couples who were the plaintiffs in the case were seeking “equal dignity in the eyes of the law.”
And he and Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayer, Kagan and Breyer made sure we had that dignity under the law.
And she’s not the only one.
Prior to the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, same-sex couples could legally marry in 36 states plus the District of Columbia, but federal appeals courts had been divided over whether states which did not have marriage equality could allow same-sex couples to marry or could recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. The June ruling made these questions moot: Same-sex marriage was now legal everywhere in the U.S. and recognized everywhere.
But in Kentucky, Kim Davis, the clerk of Rowan County who issues marriage licenses, has refused to issue them to same sex couples citing “God’s authority.” Davis, who has been in a battle with the courts since it became known she was denying marriage licenses to lesbian and gay couples, has vowed not to resign, even under the pressure of steep fines or jail. According to Davis, gay and lesbian couples are an abomination, so she is not going to risk her soul by giving them marriage licenses.
The thing is, elected officials don’t get to pick and choose which laws they will enforce. Same-sex marriage is the law in the U.S. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, but you don’t get to ignore it in a legal capacity.
It’s obvious Davis is enjoying her 15 minutes of homophobic fame at the expense of gay and lesbian couples who have been protesting every day at the courthouse where Davis works. And just to reinforce her allegation that she’s not discriminating against anyone, Davis has refused to issue any marriage licenses at all since the June decision, saying, “To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God’s definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience.”
Davis herself has a rather sketchy relationship to what most evangelical Christians consider God’s definition of marriage, however, having been married and divorced four times herself.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has taken up the case, sending out a mass mailing headlined “Dear Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, You’re In Contempt of Court and the Constitution.” The ACLU noted, “With the Supreme Court’s decision, Davis has no legal grounds to continue defying the district court’s order. Citing her religious beliefs, she nevertheless again refused to grant a marriage license this morning to April Miller and Karen Roberts, our clients in Miller v. Davis.”
The only real question is, why has it taken several months for this to become a news story? Since Davis is elected (she was elected in November 2014, filling the position vacated by her mother, who had worked in the same post for 37 years), she can’t be fired.
But Davis can be removed from her position. Which may be happening as soon as next week. Davis is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 3.
Gov. Steven Beshear, D-Ky., directed county clerks to fulfill their “duties prescribed by law” or resign. A federal judge ordered Davis to issue licenses–an order that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt on Sept. 1.
On Sept. 1 the ACLU and ACLU of Kentucky filed a motion to hold Davis in contempt of court. The ACLU motions demand that the court “impose steep monetary fines on Davis to induce her to comply with the injunction and issue marriage licenses to local couples like our clients.”
On Thursday Sept. 3, Davis is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge David Bunning to answer for her refusal to issue the licenses. If Davis is found in contempt of court, she may face fines or even jail. The couples challenging her refusal have asked only for monetary fines.
The Davis case has garnered national attention, but the refusal to accept the SCOTUS decision is not just Davis’s. Republican presidential candidates have maintained their opposition to same-sex marriage. On Sept.1 Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said in a radio interview in Boston while campaigning, “People who do stand up and are making a stand to say that they believe in something is an important part of the American way.”
Paul, who leans Libertarian, said, “I think one way to get around the whole idea of what the Supreme Court is forcing on the states is for states just to get out of the business of giving out licenses. Alabama has already voted to do this; they’re just no longer going to give out licenses. And anybody can make a contract. And then if you want a marriage contract, you go to a church. And so I’ve often said we could have gotten around all of this also in the sense that I do believe everybody has a right to a contract.”
A proud day. pic.twitter.com/Iedos1hYTk
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 27, 2015
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal was more vehement. “Marriage between a man and a woman was established by God, and no earthly court can alter that,” Jindal said. “This decision will pave the way for an all-out assault against the religious freedom rights of Christians who disagree with this decision. The government should not force those who have sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage to participate in these ceremonies.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, an early favorite in the presidential race has come out strongly against marriage equality, calling it a “grave mistake.” Walker said, “We will need a conservative president who will appoint men and women to the Court who will faithfully interpret the Constitution and laws of our land without injecting their own political agendas.”
Add your name if you agree: We need full equality for LGBT Americans. Pass the #EqualityAct. http://t.co/ym2VYOlMvV pic.twitter.com/J1xdbbdKLd
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 23, 2015
Other GOP candidates have been equally strident. Frontrunner Donald Trump said the Supreme Court “let us down” with the decision on same-sex marriage and blamed Jeb Bush for pushing Chief Justice John Roberts for the nomination when George Bush was president. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee thinks same-sex marriage is “disastrous” and that the SCOTUS decision was “an act of judicial tyranny.” Carly Fiorina, who has been rising in the polls and is now third in Iowa, said, “I do not agree that the Court can or should re-define marriage” and like nearly all of the GOP candidates, believes the states should have had control over the marriage issue, but Fiorina has also issued long statements on the Obergefell decision which is a lot more intensely anti-gay. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) believes the decision is “the very definition of lawlessness.”
The reason these statements matter is because these people aren’t a small town county clerk in a small state. They are people who could be the next president of the U.S. And while SCOTUS did rule on same-sex marriage in June, much of the U.S. still feels that ruling isn’t final and that people refusing to bake cakes for lesbian and gay couples like Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery who were ordered in July to pay $135,000 to a lesbian couple and Kim Davis deserve support, that what they are doing is civil disobedience.
The fight for lesbian and gay rights to marriage equality isn’t over.
While 54% of Americans support marriage equality, 46% do not. And among those who don’t are Republican politicians running for president on our civil rights and our lives. Whoever is president come November 2016 will likely be nominating justices to the SCOTUS in their first term. Will those justices have politics like the liberal justices who voted for our rights or will they have political views much like Kim Davis’s, who told gay and lesbian couples on Sept. 2 that they would “face judgment”?
LGBT people are nowhere near having equal rights in America. ENDA (Emplyment Non-Discrimination Act) has been coming before Congress for 21 years and has yet to be passed. Lesbians are the most commonly discriminated against in employment, with many well-publicized cases of firings in the news this year, most recently a teacher in Philadelphia last month fired for marrying her long-time partner. Kim Davis is just one example of how the people who hate us are willing to put their own lives on the line to keep us from living our own.
Come the presidential election, we may have one in the White House whose beliefs could set our rights back decades.