From: Cole Bennett
Columbus
Happy Pride Month to my fellow LGBT friends and allies. In a world where loving someone openly and proudly is punishable by death in some countries, the USA remains the safest place in the world to be gay. As we celebrate the accomplishments of the movement, such as marriage equality and social acceptance, we should also acknowledge the challenges that lie ahead.
According to ABC News, states such as Idaho, Montana, and Michigan have crafted or even passed resolutions this year calling on the Supreme Court to reevaluate the 2015 Obergefell decision, which affirmed gay marriage across the country. How did we get here?
First, we should not give a pass to the faction within the social conservative movement that refuses to let others live by their own individual freedoms. Some of the activists within the anti-gay movement are closeted themselves, and are filled with so much self-disgust that they believe restricting the freedoms of others will rectify themselves with God.
Perhaps most importantly, Congress has abdicated all responsibility to the judicial and executive branch. Congress has had 10 years to codify Obergefell, but has sat on its hands in the interest of politics. Pro-abortion advocates learned this the hard way in 2022. Far too often, we rely on the executive branch to make sweeping change – specifically with executive orders. Signed executive orders are then challenged in court, which the Supreme Court eventually rules as executive overreach, then a president from the opposing party comes on the scene, reverses all previous executive orders, and the cycle repeats. Our founders would be so disappointed in the state of Congress.
Lastly, and most bluntly, the LGBT community will also have to share the blame. In the years since Obergefell, the gay rights movement shifted to promoting a gender ideology that is out of touch with 80% of Americans. Advocating for biological boys in girls’ locker rooms and castration of minors is not advocating for human rights. We have let absolutist activists drown out the message, and have clung too close to the Democratic Party. This has had statistically negative consequences. A 2024 Gallup survey offers a warning to our community in the eyes of public opinion. According to the survey, support for same-sex marriage has seen a decline over the last two years across the aisle, with 87% of Democrats supporting in 2022 to 83%, and 55% of Republicans to 46%.
There is, however, cause for hope. In 2022, Congress passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which requires that states recognize out-of-state same-sex marriage licenses, even if Obergefell were overturned. Voting for this act included Republicans, namely our very own Sen. Todd Young.
Digging in our heels on unpopular issues is not how we win. Pride Month is not a celebration of gender nonconformity, pronouns, or gender transition for minors. Rather, it’s a celebration of the community’s progress on human rights as a model for the rest of the world.
