{"id":1419756,"date":"2025-01-29T11:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T11:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/?p=1419756"},"modified":"2025-02-04T12:31:33","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T12:31:33","slug":"idaho-equal-marriage-republican-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/justice\/idaho-equal-marriage-republican-memorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans in Idaho have challenged marriage equality. Should we be concerned?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Idaho House lawmakers are calling on the US Supreme Court to overturn the landmark 2015 decision to legalise same-sex marriage across all states. Will they succeed?<\/p>\n

<\/p>

Since Trump<\/a>\u2019s reelection in November\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 which saw a 700% increase in LGBTQIA+ youth crisis calls \u2013 anti-LGBTQIA+ voices in government and everyday life have been emboldened.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the days since assuming office, Trump<\/a> has signed a number of executive orders taking aim at DEI, as well as targeting the trans community: banning them from the military, removing \u2018X\u2019 gender markers and barring their access to single-sex spaces which correspond with their gender.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While Trump hasn\u2019t yet tabled marriage equality as a topic for discussion \u2013 and, in fact, has recently appointed the gay, married billionaire Scott Bessent as his Treasury secretary \u2013 Republican lawmakers in Idaho are taking aim.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On 27 January, Idaho\u2019s 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 across the US aiming to \u201crestore the natural definition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman.\u201d It has now passed to the Senate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Idaho\u2019s Constitution has a trigger law meaning that marriage equality could immediately be outlawed once federal protections disappear.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The memorial was proposed by GOP state Rep. Heather Scott, who argued that the measure was a matter of \u201crestoring the issue of marriage and enforcement of all laws pertaining to marriage back to the several states and the people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2013, Sue Latta was among the four Idaho lesbian couples who filled\u00a0Latta v. Otter, a lawsuit in the US district court which challenged Idaho’s state ban on same-sex marriage. In 2014, it was ruled that Idaho’s marriage laws banning same-sex marriage were “unconstitutional”.<\/p>\n

Speaking to GAY TIMES<\/em>, Latta shares that she was disheartened by the recent attacks on marriage equality in her state, and frustrated with the lack of consideration for the logistical problems it may cause.<\/p>\n

“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,” Latta says.<\/p>\n

“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?”<\/p>\n

Latta also notes the harm that such political attacks can inflict on the queer community, while noting the lack of meaningful change on urgent issues such as the wealth gap. “The attacks on LGBTQ+ rights completely disregards the real harm these efforts cause to real people and real families, all for blatant political pandering to ‘the base’,” Latta explains. “This is a just a distraction from the complete lack of leadership on issues that affect us all, climate change, lack of affordable housing, the growing chasm of wealth inequality, and on and on.”<\/p>\n

So, should we be concerned? Well, a joint memorial does not carry the force of the law and, instead, acts like a petition \u2013 as it stands there\u2019s a long way to go before marriage equality is overturned.\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

Bill Mitchell, the Idaho policy counsel for Legal Voice argues that the measure is primarily to promote a culture of discrimination. “For two decades, Idaho lawmakers have ignored calls from community members to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in Idaho’s Human Rights Act,\u201d Mitchell explains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cToday, 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.”<\/span><\/p>\n

As marriage equality is constitutionally protected, state lawmakers can\u2019t overturn it. The only way for it to change would be for the Supreme Court to hear a legal case presenting the issue and voting in a majority to overturn the decision.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Normally the Court is hesitant to reverse decisions, but various commentators have noticed that, in his closing comments in the ruling which overturned Roe, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that the Court could \u201creconsider\u201d major cases involving \u201csubstantive due process precedents\u201d \u2013 which would include marriage equality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Christopher F. Stoll, Senior Staff Attorney at National Center for Lesbian Rights, emphasises that this is unlikely to come into play in this instance. <\/span>\u201cAlthough 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,\u201d Stoll explains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2017, for example, the Court reaffirmed same-sex couples\u2019 freedom to marry in a case involving Arkansas\u2019 refusal to issue birth certificates naming both spouses as parents. Chief Justice Roberts joined the majority in upholding the Court\u2019s 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\u2019s unlikely that the Court will reconsider the freedom to marry, at least not anytime soon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Understandably, queer people across the US are concerned about the precedent that the memorial in Idaho might set. However, it\u2019s worth noting that a blanket ban on same-sex marriage looks unlikely. \u201cSame-sex couples have a constitutionally guaranteed right to marry in every state,\u201d says Stoll. \u201cThe only way that could change would be for the Court to hear a legal case presenting that issue. Currently, there is no sign that a majority of the justices are inclined to reconsider the Court\u2019s freedom to marry decision anytime in the foreseeable future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, actions by the Biden administration would ensure that even if the Supreme Court\u2019s marriage equality decision is overturned, same-sex marriages performed in one state would have to be legally recognised in others. \u201cEven if the Supreme Court were to overturn its marriage equality decision someday, that would not mean that couples would be unable to marry in every state,\u201d Stoll adds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMany states will continue to permit same-sex couples to marry, and federal law will continue to require all states to respect those marriages. The Respect for Marriage Act, which was passed by Congress and signed by President Biden, requires the federal government and all states to recognise the marriages of same-sex and interracial couples as long as the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Going forward, it\u2019s possible that, similar to what is happening in Idaho, we will see more challenges to marriage equality from various state lawmakers. However, these don\u2019t undermine the right to equal marriage and are mostly designed to stoke fear among the LGBTQIA+ community and emboldened ant-LGBTQIA+ factions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough it\u2019s possible that legislators in other states could propose similar resolutions, those measures are just political stunts,\u201d says Stoll. \u201cOnly the US Supreme Court can change the law that allows same-sex couples to marry, and there is no sign they are likely to do so anytime soon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Idaho House lawmakers are calling on the US Supreme Court to overturn the landmark 2015 decision to legalise same-sex marriage across all states. Will they succeed? Since Trump\u2019s reelection in\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7364,"featured_media":1419765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19568],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRepublicans in Idaho have challenged marriage equality. Should we be concerned?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Idaho House lawmakers are calling on the US Supreme Court to overturn marriage equality. 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