mean this year? But again, there was DOMA, which prohibited the federal government from legally recognizing marriage between two people of the same sex, and allowed individual states to ignore laws from other jurisdictions were marriage equality was recognized. And state constitutional amendments were passing around the country to outlaw any recognition of our relationships. So we took a quick moment to celebrate Lawrence and the death of sodomy laws, then we rushed to try to put out the next fire. Human Rights Campaign began counting the many special rights afforded to straight couples — more than 1,100 by the time the counting was done. Studies showed same-sex couples spent tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars more because of those special rights given to straight couples. Then came Edie Windsor, a widow who had married her wife in Canada in 2008. Had she been married to a man, she would have paid absolutely nothing in inheritance tax. Since she was married to a woman, she owed more than $365,000 in taxes when her wife died. Edie Windsor sued, challenging DOMA in federal court. And in 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the one section of DOMA prohibiting the federal government from recognizing marriages between people of the same gender. The Windsor case was a huge win, yes. But didn’t get rid of all of DOMA. Texas and other states with marriage amendments could continue to discriminate just as they always had. And that partial victory over DOMA created a legal mess. So we celebrated and went back into the streets and into the courtroom. How was the government going to deal with this? One married Dallas couple had moved to Texas from California. A year later, they were about to return to their native state for new jobs, but one husband remained behind to sell the house and take care of other business. So for that period they were apart, the husband in California was legally married to his husband in Dallas but the husband in Dallas wasn’t married to his spouse in California. But things began moving quickly after Windsor. The IRS ruled it would recognize any legal marriage, no matter where the couple lived. One federal agency after another began to follow suit. Couples around the country began filing lawsuits challenging their state marriage bans. Court after court struck down the bans. Out of more than 60 marriage rulings, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, a U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico and one in Louisiana were the only courts to find the marriage bans legal. Then in June, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Obergefell v. Hodges decision. Jim Obergefell and John Arthur, his partner of 20 years who was dying of ALS, flew on a medical flight from their home in Ohio to a runway in Maryland. They were married on the plane and then returned home. Arthur died two months later. Obergefell sued to have Ohio recognize their marriage for the sake of the death certificate. The Sixth Circuit overturned a lower court ruling that would have forced the state to recognize the marriage in this once instance for the sake of one document. But it didn’t end there. In June this year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Sixth Circuit and threw out all state marriage equality bans. So now, where do we stand? DOMA is gone. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is gone. Sodomy laws are gone. Make no mistake: There’s still plenty of work to do. Nationwide employment, housing and accommodation protections for the LGBT community are still missing, although some state and local laws exist in various places — including Dallas and Fort Worth — to prevent that sort of discrimination. Plano has some protections, and hopefully Houston voters will step up in November and approve the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance banning discrimination there. On another front, tons of work still needs to be done to get protections and equal rights for the transgender community. Even many of the laws already in place to protect lesbians and gays specifically leave out protections for transgender men and women. Even with legal protections in place, the hatred and the discrimination still exist. Just look to PRIDE, Next Page
09.18.15
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dallasvoice
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