Republican legislators all over the U.S. are attempting to place restrictions on same-sex marriage and transgender rights following the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
Representatives in Idaho passed a resolution in January calling the Supreme Court to reverse the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges case that protected the right of same-sex marriage. Four other states– Michigan, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota– have done the same.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas first expressed revisiting Obergefell and other similar cases following the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 decision on the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that overturned the federal right to abortion, which has sparked the uptick in resolutions aiming to restrict other personal freedoms.
“We should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents (such as Obergefell). Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents,” Thomas stated in his concurring opinion.
Some legislators argue that the legality of same-sex marriage should be left to the states, while others believe that it should be banned outright. On Feb. 25, Michigan republican representative Josh Schriver presented a resolution that seeks to restrict same-sex marriage to “preserve and grow our human race.”
The American population is currently 340.1 million residents at time of publishing and is projected to keep increasing, despite what Schriver believes. In 2024, the U.S. population grew by almost 1%, which is the fastest annual growth rate since 2001.
“The new resolution urges the preservation of the sanctity of marriage and constitutional protections that ensure freedom of conscience for all Michigan residents,” stated Schriver at a press conference.
A 2024 Gallup poll found that 69 percent of Americans continue to believe that marriage between same-sex couples should be legal, and 64 percent believe gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable.
Same-sex marriage is not the only freedom being attacked– many states are attempting to remove protections for transgender and intersex people.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill on Feb. 28 that removes gender identity from Iowa’s civil rights law, making the state the first to remove civil rights from a previously protected class of people.
Reynolds stated that the legislation “safeguards the rights of women and girls.” She argued that the civil rights code’s provisions against discrimination based on gender identity “blurred the biological lines between the sexes” and “required Iowa taxpayers to fund gender-reassignment surgeries.”
“We all agree that every Iowan, without exception, deserves respect and dignity. What this bill does accomplish is to enhance protections for women and girls, and I believe that it is the right thing to do,” said Reynolds.
Before signing the bill, Reynolds explained that it was intended to align Iowa’s laws with federal law and the laws of most states. However, federal law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity following the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, and over 25 U.S. states prohibit the discrimination on the basis of gender identity in some form.
