On June 26, 2015 the United States Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges, decided that same sex marriage was a constitutional right and ordered the states to issue marriage licenses to all couples applying for one.
In the wake of that decision we have seen repeated attempts by some states and public officials to frustrate and, in some cases, defy the Court’s mandate.
In Kentucky, the Rowan County Clerk, Kim Davis, refused the issue the licenses and was ordered to jail by a United States District Court judge for five days until she relented and authorized her staff to issue the licenses.
In Alabama, the Chief Judge of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy Moore, who is renowned for erecting monuments to the Ten Commandments in State courthouses, ordered the lower court not to issue licenses to same sex couples. A number of lower court judges refused to abide by the ban and issued licenses in accordance with the Obergfell decision but the ban continues to be a subject of continued litigation. One can only hope that Moore, a committed homophobe, gets a dose of the Davis treatment.
We have gone a long way down since President John F. Kennedy eloquently made the case for the separation of church and state and discrimination based on religion before the Houston Ministerial Alliance during the 1960 Presidential election.
Perhaps more subtle but equally egregious are the laws that have been enacted or considered by several states which would permit businesses to refuse services to same-sex couples and bar transgendered people from using rest rooms according to their gender identity.
Last month, when I was in Asheville, North Carolina, the state legislature passed a law that invalidated the city of Charlotte’s local law prohibiting discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) people. Charlotte’s local law also permitted transgendered people to use facilities based on their gender identity. This state ban was signed by Governor Pat McCrory, who had been elected on a platform of returning power to the state’s localities.
In the aftermath of its passage some of the state’s largest employers such as Pay Pal, Google Ventures and other businesses have announced that they will no longer invest in expanding their businesses in the state.
The NBA is considering whether it will move next year’s championship game from Charlotte to another state and is being encouraged to do so by former NBA star Charles Barkley.
Yesterday, the iconic rock star, Bruce Springsteen, cancelled a concert scheduled for April 10 whose venue was Greensboro, North Carolina.
Governor McCrory remains obstinate about repealing the measure and the world awaits the state’s plan on how it will enforce the restroom portion of the ban.
Mississippi enacted and even more aggressive anti-LGBT law called the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act which allows individuals to refuse services to LGBT individuals, same sex couples and single women who offend their “sincerely held religious beliefs.” Somehow single men were omitted from the class who could be discriminated against.
It remains to be seen how the law will affect tourism and convention traffic to the cities and casinos on the Gulf Coast.
Other states have considered such laws but cooler heads have prevailed.
The Georgia state legislature passed a “religious liberty” bill that would enshrine the right to discriminate against LBGT people but it was vetoed by the Governor after outcries from some of the State’s largest employers including Apple, Disney, Intel and others and after the NCAA and NFL suggested it could hinder the state’s prospects of hosting championship games. Business leaders in Indiana forced a revision to similar legislation although the failure to repeal it entirely did not satisfy the employer, Angie’s List, which put an expansion of its facility in Indianapolis on hold.
It is often said that money can’t buy love or happiness.
That is undoubtedly true.
An economic boycott and the withholding of money that promotes or achieves equality and tolerance is good.