Stephanie Astono Salim
Marriage equality in the United States is a vulnerable right. It was gained in a courtroom, and that is where it could be lost.
As late as 2012, 32 states had constitutional amendments on their books that rejected gay marriage. Then court clerks and judges stepped in, leading the U.S. Supreme Court to dismantle marriage bans and legalize gay marriage in 2015.
But now, the Supreme Court is deciding the case of a wedding cake baker who refused a gay couple on free-speech grounds. Oral arguments were heard in early December. As we await the outcome, signs suggest that LGBT allies and legal advocates have reason to be concerned.
On January 8, the Supreme Court passed up a chance to hear an appeal of a Mississippi law that allows businesses and governments to deny services to LGBT people over religious beliefs. That means the law will stand.
In another recent decisions, the Supreme Court refused to review a court decision in Texas that denies same-sex spousal benefits in Texas government jobs.
This is a hard reality for me, a lawyer focusing on LGBT issues. I worry that the courts will restrict the right to marry they gave us in 2015. This is about much more than wedding cake. It’s about recognizing the right of people to be treated equally, regardless of sexual orientation.
Civil union and domestic partnership laws gave most people in the United States access to a marriage substitute before the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision. By then, about two-thirds of the states had some form of gay marriage, mostly due to court decisions and legislative actions.
Courtroom and legislative actions led the way, culminating in the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling, which put a protective icing on marriage rights. Public opinion followed.
A 2017 Pew Research Center study said 62 percent of Americans favor gay marriage, up from less than half in 2012. Prior to the court’s ruling, acceptance was low. In 2008 voters in California, the most populous state and one that considers itself highly progressive, approved Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage.
Queer people of color, transgender people and rejected youth continue to be marginalized. We lack nationwide anti-discrimination laws for gender identity and sexual orientation in private employment and housing, though 20 states have them. The Human Rights Campaign and Trans People of Color Coalition reported that 28 transgender people in the United States were violently killed in 2017, the vast majority of whom were people of color. This led the HRC to call 2017 the deadliest year of the decade for the American transgender community.
To stop such aggression, mainstream society must take a stand against hatred. Full-out weddings with personal cakes, flowers, dresses, photographs, big bands and DJs—an affirming wedding like everyone else, like straight people—can help us gain the right to safety by bringing LGBT experiences out of the margins.
A ruling for the baker, on the other hand, would start scraping off the icing.
Lee Nacozy
Lindsey Miller Photo
Lee Nacozy is a journalist and lawyer, a former program manager and current volunteer of the QLaw Foundation, a public interest law group. This column was written for the Progressive Media Project, affiliated with The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.