About a year ago, I wrote a personal piece on Tumblr reflecting on the progress marriage equality had made and how it affected me. I was born just outside of Detroit, Michigan. I made a home for myself in Louisville, Kentucky only a handful of miles from the Indiana state line. My work often took me to Cincinnati Ohio, where our company was headquartered, and most of my vacations after the age of 25 took me to south Florida where my mother’s family bought condos like some people buy shoes. These five states all carried a piece of my heart. Their borders shaped me into the woman I am today, and I watched their progress very closely.
One year ago, each of those states were taking the first steps towards embracing marriage equality. There were cases in the lower courts, and the judges were ruling in our favor; standing on the right side of history. But in each state the rulings were challenged by governors and public opinion, taking their cases to the Sixth and Eleventh Circuit Court. On a Friday, I was celebrating an assured victory with friends, only to wake up Monday morning to more setbacks and political pirouetting that would freeze our hard earned progress in its tracks.
Louisville, KY is a larger city than many people realize. The economy thrives because of its diversity, and as a result a fair portion of the working populace are transplants and commuters. Across the bridge in Indiana (not 15 minutes from my front door), tangible progress was made. Marriage equality won the day, and was not blocked or postponed. At work we happy liberals celebrated in hushed voices between cubicles, and in conference rooms behind closed doors. We rejoiced because surely, this advancement was a sign of positive changes to come in our own home. But like so many other states that had ties to my heart and livelihood, the backlash was swift and sweeping. Indiana passed a Religious Freedom Bill on the heels of our victory, granting business owners the right to discriminate.
Now, we all know how quickly these types of bills get amended, and the vicious warnings and palpable outrage voiced by CEOs of major corporations like Apple and Sales Force warmed my heart. But make no mistake, that bill silenced our celebrations. It served as a reminder to me that my commerce was not always welcome, and my employment was not guaranteed through work ethic alone.
The reason I’m sharing this story is simple: The conservative backlash is coming.
I have lived it first hand in my childhood home of Michigan where Judge Bernard Friedman ruled Michigan’s marriage ban unconstitutional, only to have his ruling challenged by Attorney General Bill Schuette who took the case to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In the home I chose and built with lifelong friends in Louisville where Judge John G. Heyburn II ruled that Kentucky’s marriage ban was unconstitutional, and in this case the ruling was not challenged by Attorney General Jack Conway. In response to this Governor Steve Beshear spent my tax dollars to hire outside council, and take the case to the Sixth Circuit Court. A burn that, quite frankly, I’m still nursing.
Similar setbacks occurred in my workday commute in Ohio (thank you Jim Obergefell), and in my family’s vacation destination of Florida where Marriage became equal when the court’s temporary injunction expired in January 2015.
My point is that the ruling of the Supreme Court changed the law but did not reshuffle the deck as far as lawmakers are concerned. These people are still in positions of power, and their prejudices are clear. We will have to live under these biases until such time as these individuals can be voted out of office. We have to continue to serve as goodwill ambassadors in the court of public opinion until the stigmas surrounding our community are dead and buried by the blinding light of our beautiful families, and stellar brunch date recommendations. On the plus side, property value is already working for us.
With all that in mind we have miles to go in the fight against LGBT youth homelessness, suicide, bullying, and protection of employment. Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Indiana and Kentucky are without sweeping statewide laws that offer protection of employment for BOTH sexual orientation, and gender identity, though many cities within those states have passed their own ordinances protecting LGBT employees. Sexual orientation is protected under both Kentucky and Florida hate crime laws, but gender identity is not. In Ohio and Indiana, neither sexual orientation nor gender identity are protected, though Indiana collects “data” on these acts of violence which they then do not criminalize (seriously Indiana? gross).
Look, I’m not often accused of optimism, and consider myself a realist at best (a pessimist at my darkest.) You can take this article anyway you like, so long as you take it, digest it, and carry it with you, because the reality is that our youth are not protected from violence and bullying, and neither are we.
Marry your partners, start families, cheer, cry, celebrate, march, go to brunch, buy rainbow sweaters for your dogs, make the move you were too afraid to make lest your union and commitment be nullified by state lines, and above all else: be proud.
Today the battle is ours, but tomorrow will hold new obstacles for us. The next wave of religious intolerance, and conservative prejudices is a fight we will wage at home in our local governments, school systems, and within the corporations that employ us.
Now is not the time to lay down our protest signs. True, nationwide equality and all the protection it offers is still a battle that we the LGBT community must rage, and conquer. Hate Crime laws regardless of state lines should protect sexual orientation and gender identity, because violent discrimination of any kind is unacceptable. Equal opportunity employment and housing protections should extend to every single taxpayer because “Murica!”
Marriage is equal. Discrimination, homophobia, intolerance, racism and sexism are alive and well.
