The U.S. House has approved legislation to protect same-sex and interracial marriages in response to post-Roe v. Wade concerns. Politicians and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas have vocalized that gay rights legislation was a mistake, so the House’s decision will lead to the comfortable sleep of many couples.
Soon after the Supreme Court struck down constitutional abortion rights for American women, Justice Clarence Thomas said that gay rights and contraceptive rights should be reconsidered.
In fact, Thomas said that cases Griswold vs. Connecticut (the ruling where married couples have the right to obtain contraceptives), Lawrence v. Texas (the right to engage in private sexual acts) and Obergefell v. Hodges (the right to same-sex marriage), were all “erroneous decisions,” according to the CNBC.
“Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,'” Thomas wrote, “we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”
While Thomas’ recommendation to reconsider these rights does not necessitate their removal, he represents a movement of conservative U.S. lawmakers and politicians who share his beliefs.
Sen. Ted Cruz, whose daughter identified herself as bisexual on TikTok, has echoed Thomas’ views on same-sex marriage. According to CNN, Cruz believes the U.S. Supreme Court was “clearly wrong” in the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
“Obergefell, like Roe v. Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history,” Cruz said in a video posted on his YouTube channel “Marriage was always an issue that was left to the states. We saw states before Obergefell, some states were moving to allow gay marriage, other states were moving to allow civil partnerships. There were different standards that the states were adopting.
“The way the Constitution set up for you to advance that position is to convince your fellow citizens, and if you succeeded in convincing your fellow citizens, then your state would change the laws to reflect those views. In Obergefell, the court said, ‘No, we know better than you guys do, and now every state must, must sanction and permit gay marriage.'”
“I think that decision was clearly wrong when it was decided,” Cruz continued. ‘It was the court overreaching.”
However, in a relieving twist, Cruz is not in favor of overturning the ruling, because it would disrupt marriages nationwide. He doesn’t believe there is anything to gain, politically, in revisiting Obergefell.
“You’ve got a ton of people who have entered into gay marriages and it would be more than a little chaotic for the court to do something that somehow disrupted those marriages that have been entered into in accordance with the law,” Cruz said. “I think that would be a factor that would, would counsel restraint, that the court would be concerned about. But to be honest, I don’t think this court has any appetite for overturning any of these decisions.”
The U.S. House agrees. The House “overwhelmingly approved legislation Tuesday to protect same-sex and interracial marriages amid concerns that the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade abortion access could jeopardize other rights criticized by many conservative Americans,” reported PBS.
Democrats argued in favor of “enshrining marriage equality in federal law, while Republicans steered clear of openly rejecting gay marriage.” Instead, “leading Republicans portrayed the bill as unnecessary amid other issues facing the nation.”
“For me, this is personal,” said Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., a gay member of the House.
“Imagine telling the next generation of Americans, my generation, we no longer have the right to marry,” he said. “Congress can’t allow that to happen.”
