June is Pride month. The month commemorates the raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village, NYC, which took place on June 28, 1969. The raid sparked six days of protests in support of LGBT rights, safety and equality. Pride month is meant to be a celebration of LGBTQ+ people and further promote their access to equal rights.
Can you guess what case came out 46 years after the Stonewall Inn raid (almost to the day)?
Image: the White House lit with rainbow colors following the Supreme Court Ruling in Obergefell.
Obergefell v. Hodges! June 26, 2015. A 5-4 majority, authored by Anthony Kennedy. The majority held that the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause guarantees the right to marry as a fundamental liberty equal for same-sex and opposite-sex couples. The court explained that this logic is inherent to the concept of individual autonomy for individuals, couples and families. There is no valid difference between same-sex marriages and opposite-sex marriages with relation to these principles and therefore no valid reason to create such disparity. To deny the equal access would constitute a denial of equal protection under the law.
Can you guess another case that came out in June, 51 years after the Stonewall Inn raid?
Bostock v. Clayton County! (June 15, 2020). 6-3 majority, authored by Neil Gorsuch. In this case, the court needed to decide whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits against employment discrimination “because of . . . sex,” also protects from discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation. The majority determined that it must apply because it was not possible to separate “sex” from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Discrimination against LGBTQ employees necessitates a discrimination against how those employees conform to expectations of sexual identity based on their own gender. The Court reasoned that an employer who employs a woman who is married to a man, but who refuses to employ a man who is married to a man, does discriminate – even if only in part – against the man’s sex. Had that man been a woman, he would not have been fired. Thus, the discrimination against LGBTQ employees inextricably necessitates discrimination based on sex.
One final bit of trivia: how many openly LBGT State/Territory Supreme Court Justices have served?
17!
3 in Oregon, 1 in Colorado, 1 in Hawaii, 2 in Massachusetts, 1 in Vermont, 1 in CT (McDonald), 2 in Washington, 1 in Minnesota, 1 in Nevada, 1 in New York, 1 in California, 1 in Guam and 1 in Puerto Rico!
The US has certainly come a long way in promoting equality to LGBTQ+ citizens within the past 50 years. However, there are still ongoing struggles and hurdles preventing equal access and rights. The next SCOTUS case to keep an eye out for is Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. Perhaps the Supreme Court will surprise us with another June victory for Pride month this year.
Obergefell v. Hodges, Oyez: https://www.oyez.org/cases/2014/14-556
Bostock v. Clayton County, Oyez: https://www.oyez.org/cases/2019/17-1618
Wikipedia List of LGBT state supreme court justices in the United States: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LGBT_state_supreme_court_justices_in_the_United_States
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