Jim Obergefell To GOP Presidential Candidates: Defend Same-Sex Marriage

Quote Of The Day - Jim Obergefell

"I would like future law students to know that my case as well as the cases of the other plaintiffs that really it was about love. Telling our government that our love is just as worthy as any other love. The fact that standing up for that love led to such a momentous change proves that it’s a very powerful force. Although the law can be antiseptic and divorced from emotion, the fact that ours was based on love - I think it improved the law because they could look at us and recognize that we deserve the same amount of respect as anyone else." - Jim Obergefell, participating in yesterday's "Ask Me Anything" on Reddit. Hit the link for much more.

PHILADELPHIA: Jim Obergefell Places Wreath At Site Of 1965 Gay Rights Rally

Via the Associated Press:

Regina Sullivan started crying as she squeezed her arms around the man at the center of the latest gay rights milestone: Jim Obergefell, whose lawsuit led to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling making same-sex marriage the law of the land. Sullivan, 17, offered her embrace before a ceremony Thursday where Obergefell helped place a wreath at a historical marker commemorating one of the movement’s first milestones: a rally near Philadelphia’s Independence Hall a half-century ago. “For me, it’s an honor to be here to pay tribute to those people who took much bigger risks than I did and laid the groundwork for John and me to be married and for us to stand up and have the courage to fight,” said Obergefell. “Without the people here in Philadelphia 50 years ago, I wouldn’t be here.”

Jim Obergefell Joins Twitter

Excited to be on @Twitter and to be a champion for #LGBTEquality

— Jim Obergefell (@JimObergefell) July 1, 2015

President Obama Calls Jim Obergefell

SCOTUS RULES FOR MARRIAGE!!!

A YouTube Chat With Jim Obergefell

Clip recap:

In his very first YouTube interview, Jim shares the details of his personal journey that has led him to the Supreme Court and branded him the face of marriage equality. Jim wants to share his story with the millennial generation, which will hopefully soon experience marriage equality as a protected right. Watch Jim’s YouTube debut as he sits down with Raymond to discuss his late partner John and why he is fighting for equality and to have his love recognized.

Bonus: Hear Jim pronounce his own name.

Jim Obergefell Is At SCOTUS

Jim Obergefell Is At The Supreme Court

Another morning of holding our breath. SCOTUSblog will begin its live-blog at 9AM and today's rulings are due at 10AM.

Quote Of The Day - Jim Obergefell

"It’s incredible to think that my name, John's and my story, is a landmark case that will be in history books. That’s an incredible thing, on an intellectual level. It’s the emotional level where I’m still catching up to that. It just doesn’t seem possible, and it doesn’t seem at all possible that I’m the person at the center of it. Knowing that I wasn’t an activist, and knowing that it all started just because John and I loved each other." - Jim Obergefell, speaking to New York Magazine.

Jim Obergefell Is At SCOTUS

Geidner reports that Obergefell plans to be at the Supreme Court "every decision day" until the marriage ruling comes out. Today's rulings are due shortly.

UPDATE: The Supreme Court issued three rulings today. Nothing on marriage. The waiting continues. SCOTUSblog notes that more rulings will be issued on Thursday.

AUDIO: Court Hears Obergefell Arguments

The 90-minute oral arguments for the first question considered today have been posted. Listen as the justices weigh whether the 14th Amendment guarantees marriage rights to all American citizens.

Chad Griffin Vs. Ryan T. Anderson

Yesterday ABC's This Week hosted Heritage Foundation wonk Ryan T. Anderson and Human Rights Campaign head Chad Griffin to spar about tomorrow's SCOTUS hearings. When host George Stephanopoulos brings up the children of gay parents, Anderson immediately pivots to the SCOTUS brief filed by Robert Oscar Lopez.

Sen. Cory Booker On Obergefell Case

Here's the fiery speech on same-sex marriage delivered yesterday by Sen. Cory Booker, who is being touted by some as a potential running mate for Hillary Clinton.

Cory Booker To Host SCOTUS Marriage Plaintiff Jim Obergefell On Senate Floor

SCOTUS marriage plaintiff Jim Obergefell will join Sen. Cory Booker on the Senate floor today. Via press release:

Today, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) will deliver remarks on the Senate floor underscoring the importance of marriage equality and sharing the story of Jim Obergefell’s struggle to have his late husband’s legal marital status acknowledged on his state-issued death certificate - a right that has been challenged by the state of Ohio all the way to the Supreme Court. Jim Obergefell is now the lead petitioner in Obergefell v. Hodges, a consolidation of six cases from four states—which addresses the question of whether the Fourteenth Amendment requires a state to recognize a same-sex marriage licensed in another state. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on April 28, 2015.

The speeches will be live-streamed at 4PM.

Washington Post Profiles Main SCOTUS Same-Sex Marriage Plaintiff Jim Obergefell

Via the Washington Post:

Jim Obergefell cannot fathom hearing his name mentioned alongside Brown or Roe. For one thing, he knows people will mispronounce it. (It’s Oh-ber-guh-fell.) And he never wanted to be the face of a movement or a legal groundbreaker. “I’m just Jim,” he said. “I just stood up for our marriage.”

It was not a long marriage, just three months and 11 days — the time it took his husband, John Arthur, to struggle to say, “I thee wed,” and then die from ALS. Now their union, and the 20-year relationship that preceded it, is at the center of Obergefell v. Hodges, the title case of four consolidated appeals the Supreme Court will hear this month to decide whether gay couples have a constitutional right to marry.

For Obergefell, the case is simply about that tricky-to-pronounce name: He wants it on Arthur’s death certificate as the surviving spouse, an idea the state of Ohio, where same-sex marriage is illegal, opposes. Should Obergefell win, history books will probably take a more expansive view of his quest.

Hit the link and read the rest. You might need a tissue.

The Story Of John Arthur & Jim Obergefell

Chris Geidner has written a wonderful profile of the late John Arthur and his husband Jim Obergefell, whose marriage will take center stage at the Supreme Court next month. Geidner's Buzzfeed piece begins:

The plane was only on the ground a matter of minutes. Just enough time for wedding vows and little else. Jim Obergefell and John Arthur had wanted to marry for a long time. In 2013, after the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, they decided this was the time to do it — even though Arthur was very, very ill. He had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2011, a fatal neurological disease that paralyzes the body. He was confined to his bed.

The couple could not get married in their home state of Ohio. They could, however, get married in one of the handful of states that did allow same-sex couples to marry. So their wedding took place aboard a small, specially equipped medical plane with two pilots, a nurse, and Arthur’s aunt — she performed the ceremony.

“We landed at Baltimore, sat on the tarmac for a little bit, said ‘I do,’ and 10 minutes later were in the air on the way home,” Obergefell said. The marriage performed there on the tarmac of Baltimore-Washington International Airport has become iconic within the marriage equality movement and beyond, a testament to a couple’s commitment and to the absurd lengths the law required them to undertake for a simple ceremony.

Hit the link and read the full story.