November 3, 2020 | Written By - Barbara Yang '21
Obergefell v. Hodges, a landmark Supreme Court decision that gave same-sex couples the right to marry under the equal protections clause of the 14th Amendment, has been challenged by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Thomas and Alito’s polemic, which attacked the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, claimed that Obergefell has “ruinous consequences for religious liberty.” The Justices go on to state that the decision "enables courts and governments to brand religious adherents who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman as bigots, making their religious liberty concerns that much easier to dismiss."
Woah, there is so much to unpack here.
In their broadside, Thomas and Alito creates numerous strawman arguments that completely mischaracterize the positions that people who support same-sex marriage hold. For example, no one, absolutely no one, has ever denounced marriage between heterosexual couples or called them bigots for simply getting married. This argument victimizes privileged heterosexual couples who have had the right to legal marriage since basically the dawn of time; this also shifts liability and culpability on to gay couples, barring them from holding homophobic people accountable for their actions because they themselves “become the bigots” if they call out homophobes for being bigoted.
Homophobes have often drawn false equivalency between themselves and those who champion gay rights, claiming that they are equally biased and at a political equilibrium of sorts. To that I say, absolutely not. Gay folks have to fight for the right to simply exist, struggling to achieve the bare minimum: equality. However, homophobes, and in this instance, Justices Alito and Thomas, reject the very existence of gay folks and try at every instance to strip them of their fundamental rights afforded to them by the Constitution.
And with that, I am reminded of a Daily Show interview with Jordan Clepper where he goes around and questions Trump supporters about their ideological beliefs. A conversation that caught my eye went as following:
Interviewee: “And the gay couple, they want... more.”
Clepper: “When you say more... Do you mean equal?”
Interviewee: “Yeah, they want equality.”
Clepper: “And that’s just too much?”
Interviewee: “Yeah...”
It may have seemed hilarious at the moment, to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation and at the woman’s words. However, as I realized that millions of Americans actually hold these opinions and will vote in accordance with their beliefs, it is deeply heartbreaking and terrifying.
I am extremely alarmed, and you should be too, that not one, but two, Supreme Court Justices have come out with a declaration to demolish the most recent advancement in equality for gay people. With the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the arrival of Amy Coney Barrett, the court most likely will be faced with a conservative 6-3 decision that will undermine decades of liberal progress; Justice Thomas and Alito’s crusade to reverse the Obergefell ruling will be successful the moment that Barrett, a practitioner of law who couldn’t even name the fifth freedom in the 1st Amendment (which I, a 17 year old with no experience of being a Constitutional lawyer, could easily name), is confirmed.
So please, I urge you all, if you can, to go out and vote and make Justice Alito and Thomas’ goal a hell of a lot harder to achieve.
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