On This Day in History: June 26

Marriage Equality in the U.S.

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Former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee is a piece of shit, so when he said something was “an out-of-control act of unconstitutional, judicial tyranny” you can bet it was the right move. What was the Baptist minister ever so pissed about? Gay people getting the right to marry. 

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: June 26, 2015--

Gay marriage, which is actually just marriage equality, was legalized on President Obama’s watch, but it was then-Vice President Joe Biden who pushed him on it, beginning back in early 2012, by going off script on NBC’s Meet the Press. Biden said gay people were “entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties.” Prior to the interview, Biden had a meeting with gay rights advocates in Los Angeles and it prompted his change of heart. 

This was before Obama’s 2012 re-election, and Biden’s statement put the incumbent in a tough political position. Despite personally being in favor, Obama had publicly been cautious in his support of marriage equality because of all the Jesus freaks who like to vote. The president said he was “evolving” on the issue. After Biden’s interview there was chaos in the White House with everyone being all oh shit this wasn’t the plan what the fuck do we do? Obama said fuck it. No more holding back. He did an interview with ABC News and talked about how he thought about the many committed and loving relationships between gay people and that he no longer believed “civil unions” were sufficient. He then said, “I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”

And people fucking lost it. The media blew it up. Six months before the 2012 election only half of Americans approved of marriage equality. Democrats supported it at 65%, independents at 57%, and Republicans, big fucking surprise, came in at 22% approval. Assholes. 

Obama won re-election and the issue eventually went to the Supreme Court via Obergefell v. Hodges in April of 2015, with a decision coming down on June 26, 2015. It was a narrow victory, with 5 justices saying fuck yeah, and four of them going on the record as bigoted pieces of shit. The four dissenters, shocker, were judges Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito. All four of those douchenoodles were appointed by Republican presidents. 

Marriage equality passed, and a crowd outside the court cheered in celebration. President Obama called it “a victory for America.” But it was not the waving of a magic rainbow wand. Cuz bigots gonna bigot. 

At the time, there were 14 states with bans on marriage equality, and the Supreme Court decision said nope you can’t ban that anymore. In Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas, many same-sex couples rushed to get married to celebrate passing of the law. But other states like Louisiana and Mississippi said no hold on a minute there we’ve got like procedural issues ‘n shit to deal with before we let you go against Jesus even though Jesus never said anything about this but we’re saying he did so no equality for you just yet. To this day there are county clerks who still refuse to do their fucking jobs and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. 

Thanks to a regressive Supreme Court, marriage equality is now threatened in the U.S.

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