Jim Obergefell Helped Secure the Right to Same-Sex Marriage. Now He's Fighting to Keep It
Jim Obergefell never wanted to be famous. He was always the shy one, he says, the guy in the corner of parties wondering when he could leave.
But that changed in 2015, when the world learned his name as the plaintiff in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, which established same-sex couples across the United States have a fundamental right to marry.
Now, seven years later, Obergefell and LGBTQ advocates worry that right could be in jeopardy. A Supreme Court draft opinion leaked in May showed the high court poised to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion established in 1973’s Roe v. Wade. While the draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito said the decision would not necessarily impact Obergefell, advocates worry its logic that “the Constitution makes no reference to abortion” and that access to an abortion is not a right “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition” could be applied to overturn other rights such as same-sex marriage or interracial marriage.
The once-reticent Obergefell—now running as a Democrat for the Ohio house of representatives—says he feels a responsibility to use his profile to be vocal, visible, and to raise awareness about the rising threat he sees. “Anything I can do to help people understand how fragile our rights are right now, I will do,” he says.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/jim-obergefell-helped-secure-same-151338273.html
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