Will Idaho End Gay Marriage in the US?
When the US Supreme Court effectively ended Roe V Wade, protecting a woman's right to an abortion, we all knew it was only a matter of time before gay marriage would be targeted,
Donald Trump will be there to help. He has already issued executive orders ending DEI, banning trans people from the military, and removing ‘X’ gender markers on passports.
He has not acted to end gay marriage. But, with a far-right leaning Supreme Court, states are ready to act. Republican lawmakers in Idaho are setting up the fight.
On January 27, Idaho’s House voted 46-24 to pass a joint memorial to reject the 2015 Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v Hodges which legalised same-sex marriage. The state wants to “restore the natural definition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman.”
The move has approved by the state Senate.
“In Idaho, same sex couples have been getting married since 2014, that means there are thousands of married couples that this will affect in Idaho and tens of thousands across the country. I wonder if any of the legislators advancing this attempt to overturn Obergefell have thought this through at all,” Sue Latta, one of the first couple's to sue for the right to wed, said.
“What are the legal ramifications of undoing all those marriages? Will the state be required to pay the legal fees involved in these dissolutions, splitting property, child custody? Or do they leave us married and no one gets to get married going forward? And how do you reconcile that with equal protection?”
Bill Mitchell, the Idaho policy counsel for Legal Voice, said this was just part of Idaho's war against the LGBTQ+.
“For two decades, Idaho lawmakers have ignored calls from community members to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in Idaho’s Human Rights Act,” Mitchell said.
“Today, Idaho remains one of 18 states without statewide anti-discrimination protections for LBGTQ+ people. That means you can be fired from your job, lose your housing, or be refused service because of who you are. The only purpose of this year’s memorial on marriage equality is to further entrench this culture of discrimination. It does nothing to change the law.”
Because same-sex marriage is constitutionally protected, state lawmakers can’t touch it. Unless the Supreme Court says otherwise.
Will it?
“Although Justice Thomas has suggested that the Supreme Court reconsider its freedom to marry decision, the Court ordinarily is very reluctant to overturn its previous decisions,” Christopher Stoll, Senior Staff Attorney at National Center for
Lesbian Rights, suggested.
“In 2017, for example, the Court reaffirmed same-sex couples’ freedom to marry in a case involving Arkansas’ refusal to issue birth certificates naming both spouses as parents. Chief Justice Roberts joined the majority in upholding the Court’s freedom to marry decision, even though he had not supported recognising the freedom to marry for same-sex couples initially. If other members of the Court share a similar view, it’s unlikely that the Court will reconsider the freedom to marry, at least not anytime soon.”
But with an obvious majority on the Court, Roberts may not be so open to helping us gays.
