My husband and I celebrate four years of marriage next month, a testament to my luck and his patience.
Our wedding remains one of the highlights of my life. It was proof for me that love could triumph over hate even in 2016, a year marred by tragedy for both our community and country.
Reflecting on that day still brings me incredible joy. We were surrounded by our closest friends and family, loved ones from all walks of life who united in marriage equality’s infancy to proudly proclaim that love is love.
Which is exactly what we did. In lieu of any religious texts, our ceremony featured readings from Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court’s opinion on marriage equality. The 5-4 ruling had done more for the two of us than religion ever had, so highlighting its significance felt right.
We broke the text into two pieces, each penned for the majority by the since-retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. The first discussed the court’s responsibility to interpret our nation’s laws.
“The nature of injustice is that we may not always see it in our own times,” Kennedy wrote. “The generations that wrote and ratified the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment did not presume to know the extent of freedom.
“They entrusted to future generations a charter protecting the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning,” he continued. “When new insight reveals discord between the Constitution’s central protections and a received legal stricture, a claim to liberty must be addressed.”
The second reading was pulled from Kennedy’s closing. He asserted that “no union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family,” something I think even anti-LGBTQ activists could’ve agreed with.
Marriage allows two people to become something more than they once were, he continued, in a union that can last longer than a lifetime. I believe that now more than ever, and Kennedy found that same-sex couples petitioning the court for that right didn’t disrespect marriage’s sanctity, they revered it.
“They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law,” he concluded. “The Constitution grants them that right.”
I’ve thought about those words a lot since 2015, particularly during my wedding. It was held only four days after the election of Donald Trump, when we expected to also be celebrating the historical victory of the nation’s first female president, who was not only more deserving but received almost 3 million more votes.
We knew in 2016 that Trump had never been an ally to the LGBTQ community. He frequently made that clear during his campaign, from naming one of the most anti-LGBTQ U.S. politicians in modern history as his running mate to promising to appoint judges “in the mold of” the late Justice Antonin Scalia, the Mike Pence of the Supreme Court.
The Obergefell ruling felt as pressing at our wedding as it does on the eve of our next marital milestone, in which Trump has named a third nominee to the now conservative-leaning court. Every election has consequences, and it’s my hope that our community understands that more than ever.
We have one chance to send dignity, empathy and leadership back to the White House, and that’s by electing Joe Biden as the next president of the United States. We need an ally in the Oval Office again.
“The White House should never be a source of opposition or fear or oppression,” he addressed the LGBTQ community via the Human Rights Campaign last month. “It should be a source of hope, of moral courage and of unification. You deserve a partner in the White House to fight with conviction and win the battles ahead.”
There will without doubt be battles ahead, as an unexpected statement from the Supreme Court showed us less than a month before the 2020 election. Referencing Obergefell, two Supreme Court Justices voluntarily questioned marriage equality’s precedent.
“By choosing to privilege a novel constitutional right over the religious liberty interests explicitly protected in the First Amendment, and by doing so undemocratically, the Court has created a problem that only it can fix,” they wrote. “Until then, Obergefell will continue to have ‘ruinous consequences for religious liberty.’”
My marriage is not a ruinous consequence for religious liberty, and it’s imperative that we prove that with our vote on or before Nov. 3. That’s why in this issue we present our latest equality-focused voters’ guide, surveying more than 100 candidates for political office in Tampa Bay and Central Florida about LGBTQ issues.
In Tampa Bay news, Rep. Charlie Crist surveys LGBTQ-owned businesses impacted by COVID-19 and Come OUT St. Pete preps for its reimagined fourth year. In Central Florida, the One Orlando Alliance introduces its new leadership.
Watermark strives to bring you a variety of stories, your stories. Please stay safe, stay informed and enjoy this latest issue – before and after you cast your ballot.
