A decade has passed, but Americans still remember the tidal wave of emotion that greeted the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision that same-sex couples were entitled to the protections of marriage.
Echoes of that rippled across the U.S. this week when the court, without comment, announced that it would refuse to consider a case that would strip away those rights.
More than 823,000 legally married same-sex couples are in the U.S. Nearly 20% of those households are raising at least one minor child. Marriage is at the forefront of the recognition that LGBTQ+ Americans have achieved.
But an undercurrent of fear persists among those struggling to believe that this fundamental right of adults — to love who you love — is still safe.
This fear is most potent in Florida, where state politicians exploit homophobia for crass political advantage. The vast majority of Floridians do not want this state to turn its back on couples who only wish to live their lives, raise children and contribute to their communities without the stress of wondering whether all of that can be lost — and it still can.
The case the high court refused to hear — brought by Kim Davis, a defiant Kentucky court clerk who refused to register same-sex marriages after the 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges — is likely not the last.
“We cannot take those protections for granted. Members of this Supreme Court have already told us they are willing to overturn Obergefell. It’s only a matter of time,” said Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel after justices refused to hear the clerk’s petition. “Today’s victory allows us a reprieve.”
Are you listening, Florida?
Love and liberty
A brief history of the Obergefell decision of June 26, 2015 is in order.
By then, national attitudes on marriage and family were shifting. Massachusetts became the first state to recognize same-sex marriage in 2004. By 2014, 70% of states had followed. What evolved was an unsustainable patchwork of legalities.
Florida voters banned same-sex marriage in 2008, but some counties, including Broward and Palm Beach, approved domestic-partner registries to give couples some marriage protections.
Confusion reigned. It was possible for a couple to legally register a union in Daytona Beach and then head to Walt Disney World to celebrate — but to get there, they had to drive through Seminole County, where the marriage did not legally exist.
Something had to give, and the Obergefell decision turned out to be a far greater gift than many anticipated.
The decision, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, included a thundering assurance that marriage was a fundamental right, and denying it to same-sex couples was a violation of their right to equal protection under the law. It spoke compellingly of evolving attitudes toward marriage and sexuality.
A call to action
In retrospect, Kennedy’s words were a powerful bulwark against those who would attempt to undermine them. Americans are not used to losing fundamental rights, once granted. But the avalanche of assaults on basic liberties proves that safety is illusory.
After the court stripped away a half century of protection for women’s reproductive freedom in 2022, its conservative majority sent signals that it would reconsider other issues of personal liberty. Justice Clarence Thomas even cited Obergefell.
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis wields homophobia as a culture-war weapon, shrieking about “wokeness,” demonizing drag queens and removing rainbow crosswalks in the dead of night.
That attitude is a clear threat to the dignity, freedom and security of nearly 100,000 same-sex couples who call Florida home. The danger is amplified by the presence of the 2008 ban on same-sex marriage — still in the state Constitution — that was written so broadly that it might be used to outlaw any legal protections for same-sex couples.
The obvious first step is to gather signatures now for one amendment to remove that cancer from the state’s foundational legal framework and another to protect same-sex marriage. In so doing, Floridians can affirm the truth that the vast majority of us embrace: Government has no business interfering with the love that binds two consenting adults.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board includes Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
