The Supreme Court rejected a request to review same-sex marriage protection. Graphic by Lily O’Connor.

ELLIOT MUEHLHAUSEN | STAFF REPORTER | emuehlhausen@butler.edu

Protection of same-sex marriage rights was federally reaffirmed by the Supreme Court’s decision not to review Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) on Nov. 10.

The court case was brought forward to be reviewed by Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk. Davis had been fined for not issuing same-sex marriage licenses last year.  

Obergefell v. Hodges found that states that denied same-sex marriage violated the 14th Amendment. This set a constitutional precedent that “fundamental liberties extend to individual dignity and autonomy.” 

If the ruling was overturned, the decision would fall to the states — much like it has with the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Indiana did not legalize same-sex marriage until just under a year before the federal ruling. 

Indiana Governor Mike Braun has been outspoken about his support for the “traditional” marriage between a man and a woman. He has supported multiple anti-LGBTQ+ policies, such as the Indiana Religious Freedom Act, which allowed businesses to deny services to gay and lesbian people. Braun has also signed a court case that “defends a taxpayer-funded agency’s right to discriminate against same-sex couples looking to foster a child.” 

Bex DeMarco, a sophomore political science and history double major and the vice president of programming and events for the LGBTQIA+ Alliance, was shocked about the court’s decision. 

“I’m very surprised they didn’t decide to hear this case because of the radical decisions the Supreme Court has been making recently, ” DeMarco said. 

After the Dobbs Decision, where Roe v. Wade was overturned, DeMarco and many others expected that there would be further attacks on issues related to autonomy, privacy and sex. 

“It is kind of like a pipeline,” DeMarco said. “Dobbs gets overturned, and that kind of puts in the right to privacy question, and then Obergefell gets overturned, and that kind of affects the right to marriage.”

DeMarco said that the overturning of Obergefell v. Hodges would have greater effects, impacting more than just marriage. 

“Not only [would it] take away the rights of queer people in order to get married, it makes things like adoption harder [and] people would lose health insurance [and] benefits,” DeMarco said. 

 David Murray, a professor of Music and Director of the School of Music, shared his personal opinion on the court’s decision. Murray’s story is not uncommon. There are more than 800 thousand married same-sex couples in the U.S.

“When I got my citizenship, my husband was my sponsor for getting the Green Card initially, and then full citizenship,” Murray said. “When we come back into the country from being away from Canada — [which is] usually at least once or twice a year — we walk up to immigration as a couple, and we don’t have to be in two lines. There was a time when [my husband] would go in the line for citizens and I’d be in the other line. We couldn’t meet up till we got through customs. Now we go up together — this is my family and having that recognized is great [and] very affirming.” 

Grace Friedberg, a junior strategic communications major, said that the weekend leading up to the decision was probably one of the most stressful weekends of her life.

“When the decision came in, I think the first feeling was immediate relief of the anxiety that I [had built] up over that time,” Friedberg said. “I wouldn’t qualify it as excitement or joy, because I don’t think that it was necessarily a win for the LGBTQ+ community, it just wasn’t a loss.” 

Across the US, there has been a growth of open members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

“About 30% of students on campus identify as queer in some capacity, which is a huge number,” DeMarco said. “Just from my own knowledge, I know the number of queer people is growing at roughly 10% each generation.”

This growth has been met with backlash. The FBI reported in 2024 that there were more than 1,300 recorded incidents of hate crimes towards the LGBTQ+ community in the U.S.  

“There’s been an exponential growth of anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ+ laws that are getting proposed and passed,” DeMarco said. “There have been things with pronouns trying to get banned. There have been bathroom bans [and] banned books.” 

Friedberg further emphasized the importance of being aware of what is transpiring within the U.S.

“I’m hoping that this brings more awareness to the fragility of LGBTQ+ rights,” Friedberg said. “We need everyone to come together and fight the bigotry that’s happening federally right now.”

Murray wants the Butler community to understand that all that’s being asked for is equality and acceptance. 

“We are humans, we just want to be equal,” Murray said. “We don’t want special rights. This is not a special right. This is an equal right.”