The Roll Back of Marriage Equality Appears to Have Begun

In a very troubling move, the United States Supreme Court refused to take an appeal by the City of Houston, Texas that challenged the validity of a Texas Supreme Court ruling that held that cities and localities could refuse to grant equal spousal benefits to same sex spouses as those provided to heterosexual couples. While the action by the nation's highest court does not indicate which justices voted to deny granting certiorari, it is a safe bet that Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch fully supported throwing gays under the bus and ignoring the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.  Given that the original lawsuit was brought by a Christofascist organization, one can only wonder when spousal benefits for interracial married couples will come under attack.  In June, 2016, when he met with a who's who of Christofascist leaders, Trump promised to roll back marriage equality.  This ruling would appear to be a first step in delivering on that promise to those who are in reality hate group leaders. Sadly, same sex couples living in red states may well soon find the value of the marital rights being undermined. Here are details from Reuters:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear Houston’s appeal of a lower court ruling that threw into doubt the city’s spousal benefits to gay married municipal employees, allowing a case that tests the reach of the landmark 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide to proceed.

The justices left intact a June ruling by the Republican-dominated Texas Supreme Court that revived a lawsuit backed by a conservative group aimed at blocking Houston from offering such benefits.

“This is an incredible early Christmas present from the U.S. Supreme Court for taxpayers,” Jonathan Saenz, president of Texas Values, a conservative group that advocates “biblical, Judeo-Christian values” that backed the lawsuit, said in a statement.

The high court’s action set no nationwide precedent but may give a boost to conservative legal efforts to limit the effects of its decision in the case Obergefell v. Hodges that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to gay couples under the U.S. Constitution.

The case will now proceed in a Texas state court, which could decide to stop the benefits offered by the fourth most populous U.S. city. Such a ruling again could be appealed to the nation’s top court.

Houston City Attorney Ron Lewis said that in the meantime the city’s policy to provide the benefits will remain in effect.

The Houston case began in 2013 when Jack Pidgeon, a local Christian pastor, and Larry Hicks, an accountant, sued the city after Annise Parker, a Democrat who was its first openly gay mayor, gave municipal spousal benefits such as health insurance and life insurance to same-sex married couples.

Pidgeon and Hicks, also backed by state Republican leaders, argued that the benefits violated the Texas constitution and state and local laws against same-sex marriage. A state trial court initially sided with them, but after the 2015 Obergefell decision, an appeals court reversed that ruling.

Lawyers for Pidgeon and Hicks told the state Supreme Court that the Obergefell ruling should be interpreted narrowly and did not require states to give taxpayer subsidies to same-sex couples any more than the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion required states to subsidize abortions.

In June, the Texas Supreme Court threw out the ruling favoring Houston, agreeing that the Obergefell decision “did not hold that states must provide the same publicly funded benefits to all married persons,” and remanded the case back to the trial court to allow the men to make their arguments again. 

One can only hope that the lower court will ultimately rule against religious based bigotry. But then again, we are talking about Texas. Thankfully, for the next four (4) years Virginia's statewide offices will be held by Democrats and a bulwark against this kind of religious based animus and hatred.  My advice to those LGBT citizens living in red states is this: work like hell to elect Democrats and, if that fails and the roll back of marriage equality continues, consider moving to a blue state.  If you opt for the latter course of action, make sure you tell your family and employer why you are leaving and set the stage for economic consequences against anti-LGBT states.