Our Chicago: Same-Sex Marriage 10 Years Later
CHICAGO (WLS) -- June 26 marks 10 years since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling made same-sex marriage legal nationwide. The ruling prompted celebrations in Washington D.C. and also in Illinois, where same-sex marriage was already legal.
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The day of that decision, ABC7 spoke with Jim Bennett, who was with Lambda Legal, and Harold Krent, Professor of Law at the Chicago-Kent College of Law.
At the time, they both said they thought the battle over same-sex marriage was over. But a lot has changed in the last 10 years. They joined ABC7 again and were asked what they see for the future of same sex marriage.
"It's not directly in danger, but there are some warning signs along the path," Krent said. "Only two justices are on the court now which ruled in the majority to uphold the sanctity of gay marriage and the other justices, three more justices, have joined the court, who are Trump appointees. So, for a numbers game, that's a concern. Many of the state legislatures are passing statutes to try to push the issue to the national consciousness, to keep the issue alive. And of course, the Southern Baptists, about 12 million strong, just issued a circular saying it's in their priority mission to overturn the Supreme Court decision."
"I would say that 10 years later marriage still enjoys it's highest level of acceptance. It's around 70 percent," Bennett said. "And it's dropped a little bit with Republicans but it's definitely increased both with Democrats and Independents. But I certainly could not have imagined the level of attack that the LGBT community is under from Trump administration. The way he wields the federal government as well as the Supreme Court. So I agree like it's something we really have to pay attention to."
For the Supreme Court to overturn its 2015 ruling on same-sex marriage, a case would have to be brought before the high court.
Krent says there is no such case at this point.
"But my guess is there will be challenges based on religious rights," Krent said.
That 2015 ruling wasn't just about people being allowed to marry. Other rights came with it.
"I think more than anything, words matter. And so, to be considered completely equal, to have this institution of marriage that we all understand and to have that recognized for lesbian and gay couples was huge. Because it normalized it," Krent said. "We now have 750,000 couples across the country that are married and so, nothing helps you stand it better than to have those real life examples. But in a practical sense, the ability to make decisions and especially life decisions. You know, how you're going to run your family and how you're going to handle when someone is sick. And being able to visit your spouse, or make decisions in the hospital. How you handle and take care of your children, and protect them. And for the lesbian and gay community, if you had children, every state you went to, you had to check what the status of marriage was there because your status changed. So, if I went from Illinois to Indiana then I may need to have new protections in place and have papers drawn up and carry my powers of attorney with me in case there was an emergency. And now we live normal, equal lives."
