GOP lawmaker revives bid to overturn same-sex marriage
GOP lawmakers have called for the US Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v Hodges. (Getty)
A Republican lawmaker has once again revived a bid to overturn same-sex marriage protections in the US, claiming it threatens the stability of “society as a whole”.
North Idaho GOP legislator Tony Wisniewski introduce a joint memorandum on Monday (23 February) that would call on the US Supreme Court to reverse its landmark decision on Obergefell v Hodges.
The 2015 ruling held that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage, overruling any anti-LGBTQ+ laws from dissenting states. It has routinely come under attack from homophobic legislators.
Speaking at a House State Affairs Committee, Wisniewski, 74, bizarrely claimed that the Supreme Court’s ruling threatened to destabilise society by ignoring what he called the “strengths” of a heterosexual family unit.
“The government did not create families or marriage, but they have to recognise that the family is the fundamental building block of society,” he said. “The strengths that these two complementary natures of a father and a mother give strength, direction, and stability to the family and therefore society.”
During the committee meeting, GOP lawmaker Heather Scott made a motion to introduce Wisniewski’s memorandum, with the elimination of the sentence purporting that defining marriage as between one man and one woman was the “basis of the United States’ Anglo-American legal tradition for more than 800 years”.
The Idaho Republican’s amended motion was approved in a mixed voice vote, according to the Idaho Capital Sun. It now faces a full public hearing which will decide its fate.
While the move is certainly cause for concern, it is unlikely it will move beyond a preliminary House vote after a similar memorial brought by Idaho Republicans failed to reach the Senate.
It is also unlikely the US Supreme Court will hear the case after it rejected a similar bid in November last year.
The nation’s top court refused to hear a legal petition brought by former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davies after an appeals court said she could be liable for refusing to issue licences to same-sex couples.
Share your story! Do you have an important, exciting or uplifting story to tell? Email us at [email protected]
