Hillary Clinton urges US gay couples to marry now: ‘They will do what they did to abortion’

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged same-sex couples living in the United States that they ‘ought to consider getting married’ amid SCOTUS’ decision on whether to hear a case on same-sex marriage.

SCOTUS (The Supreme Court of the United States) is currently considering whether to hear an appeal brought by former county clerk Kim Davis to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges – the landmark 2015 ruling that legalised same-sex marriages across America.

Davis spent six days in jail in 2015, when she refused to grant a gay couple a marriage licence following the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling; in the new appeal, which SCOTUS is considering to hear, Davis is appealing a $100,000 jury verdict for emotional damages as well as $260,000 for attorneys’ fees.

But the case, if considered, could represent a threat to federal protections for same-sex marriage, on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. It is the first time the court has been formally asked to overturn same-sex marriage.

The move has sparked justified anger and fear in the LGBTQ+ community across the US, and former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has now urged same-sex couples to consider getting legally married sooner rather than later.

In an interview with Jessica Tarlov of Fox News‘ The Five, Clinton warned that “there are going to be real world consequences” for the status of same-sex marriage.

“American voters, and to some extent the American media, don’t understand how many years the Republicans have been working in order to get us to this point,” Clinton said.

“It took 50 years to overturn Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court will hear a case about gay marriage. My prediction is they will do to gay marriage what they did to abortion. They will send it back to the states.”

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WATCH: @HillaryClinton predicts to @JessicaTarlov that SCOTUS will overturn marriage equality and “send it back to the states” (like abortion) — leading to a ban in much of 🇺🇸 On Trump & Republicans stealing seats: “they don’t want a fair fight” Full: https://youtu.be/L4h9wllCtLo?si=QSnQgAPUvel8b9HI

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“Anybody in a committed relationship out there in the LGBTQ community, you ought to consider getting married,” Hillary Clinton continued. “‘Cause I don’t think they’ll undo existing [same-sex] marriages, but I fear that they will undo the national right.”

If same-sex marriage does get overturned by SCOTUS, which is currently a majority conservative court, decisions on whether it is legal will return to state-level. In 2015, same-sex marriage was legal in 37 states and the District of Columbia the day before the Supreme Court ruling.

While several Republican states could seek to halt same-sex unions within their own borders, the Respect for Marriage Act – signed by Joe Biden in 2022 – requires “interracial and same-sex marriage must be recognised as legal in every state in the nation”. This means if one state were to outlaw same-sex marriage it would have to recognise same-sex unions from other states where they are legal.

Davis’s filing says that the union of any same-sex couples who married since the ruling would be grandfathered, meaning they would remain married.

William Powell, the attorney for the couple that sued Davis in 2015, wrote in a statement to Newsweek that he is “confident the Supreme Court will likewise agree that Davis’s arguments do not merit further attention.”

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