The decline and rolling back of LGBTQ rights during the Trump Administration has been a major area of focus for civil rights and advocacy groups. The administration has taken a number of actions, particularly targeting the rights and visibility of transgender and non-binary people. +
Many of these actions have been challenged in court by civil rights organizations. The overall impact, according to LGBTQ advocates, has been an increase in discriminatory policies, a reduction in federal protections, and a rise in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and sentiment in public life. +
The one positive outcome was the recent action of the U.S. Supreme Court to refuse to hear an appeal to reject the ruling on same-sex marriage. The response was a simple “No,” without any opinion or further discussion. Perhaps they felt the shift in public opinion since the ruling, now that the majority of the public favor same-sex marriage.
The landmark Supreme Court decision regarding same-sex marriage is Obergefell v. Hodges, decided in June 2015. The ruling said that “LGBTQ people have a Constitutional right to marry. The right to marry is an inherent personal liberty and is central to individual autonomy and dignity. Marriage is fundamental to society, and denying same-sex couples to the right to marry deprives them of equal protection under the law.” +
+ Resourced by Gemini Google from 16 sources.
Such a detailed interpretation of the law was a surprise that also offered a major win for the LGBTQ people. Although some of the current justices had voted against the ruling, they were not ready to reverse themselves so soon. The original ruling had a slim majority, but it held.
The LGBTQ community has had to fight for their civil rights in several cases that went to the Supreme Court. I won’t list all of the cases, but it was a bitter step-by-step battle to end the discrimination of decades in the U.S. Until then, society had been unwilling even to discuss LGBTQ issues as though they didn’t even exist.
The most prevalent laws were the state sodomy laws, and it took a reversal by the American Psychological Association to change that status as an illness in 1973. Thirty years later in 2003, the Supreme Court struck down those laws. This was the linchpin for all of the subsequent cases, because it established that LGBTQ people were not criminals. The LGBTQ community had engaged in public protests going all the way back to the 1920, but they had not produced a legal response. Advocacy groups grew larger starting in the 1950’s but still were limited in their legal impact.
The current situation has produced more discrimination against transgender people. It also has divided support among the LGBTQ community. They see this as the first step to eliminating their rights too.
Well, a win is a win, and we are happy to take what we can get in this period of chaos.
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