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OCT. 8, 2019: Rally for LGBTQ rights outside Supreme Court.Photo: Shutterstock
President Donald Trump’s contentious choice to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, is a darling of the religious right. Barrett is an anti-abortion activist and member of a strict misogynist religious sect that opposes LGBTQ rights and teaches that women should obey their husbands.
Despite gay Trump supporters’ desperate attempts to convince the LGBTQ community that Barrett wouldn’t use her position on the court to undermine or overturn marriage equality, the National Organization for Marriage, a religious right hate group that led the charge against marriage equality, didn’t get the memo.
Related: Amy Coney Barrett halfheartedly apologizes for using offensive term to refer to gay people
The group has turned its sights internationally following the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court ruling that legalized marriage equality in the United States. Brian Brown, the group’s leader has deep ties to Russia and other far-right organizations.
But Barrett’s nomination and testimony have Brown crowing. In an email to supporters, he writes, “When the US Supreme Court illegitimately redefined marriage in 2015 with their anti-constitutional ruling in the Obergefell case, NOM vowed to work every day to overturn that decision. People said we were crazy to think that was possible.”
“We were mocked and ridiculed by LGBT activists for even suggesting that the Supreme Court would ever reverse their ruling imposing gay ‘marriage.’ Regardless, NOM pressed on and now the supposedly unthinkable is clearly within sight.
“They don’t think we’re crazy any longer.”
Over multiple days of confirmation hearings, Barrett repeatedly refused to say whether or not she thought Obergefell was correctly decided. She also refused to comment on the Court ruling that overturned sodomy laws in the United States that made gay sex illegal.
Barrett said twice in her confirmation hearings that her rulings as a Supreme Court Justice would be bound by the legal precedent established by the Obergefell decision. She also said, when questioned by South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, that she doubted any case trying to outlaw same-sex marriage would ever make it to the Supreme Court because lower courts would be bound by the same legal precedent.
But what she didn’t mention was that the Supreme Court is still receiving cases seeking to chip away at same-sex marriage rights. Most of the claims center around “religious freedom” arguments sure to appeal to Bennett’s religious right background.
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