OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — There is growing reaction Tuesday night as a Republican state lawmaker calls on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its ruling, making gay marriage legal.
LGBTQ+ advocates say they are annoyed that, in this day and age, legislators are still trying to define what love is for everyone.
“For the Oklahoma legislature to choose at this moment to say that they don’t value the sanctity of marriage between queer constituents is definitely concerning,” Nicole McAfee, Executive Director of Freedom Oklahoma said.
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After more than 40 years, the fight to legalize same-sex marriage on the federal level came to an end back in 2015.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not limit marriage rights.
Now, Republican Senator Dusty Deevers (R-Elgin), alongside Republican Representative Jim Olsen (R-Roland), have filed a resolution, calling for U.S. Supreme Court justices, most of them conservative, to overturn the 2015 ruling.
As part of their reasoning, Deevers and Olsen say Oklahoma voters codified marriage as being only between a man and a woman back in 2007.
Both believe the 2015 ruling has taken power away from the states.
They point directly to the Dobbs decision in 2022, which overturned Roe versus Wade, removing federal protections for abortion access, and sending the issue back to each individual state to regulate.
“It is not a policy matter,” McAfee said. “It doesn’t carry the force of law. There is not a case that the Supreme Court has taken up that would impact Obergefell in the immediate term.”
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However, it is still sparking concern among LGBTQ+ Oklahomans.
“He is showing the people in Oklahoma, the LGBTQ+ community in Oklahoma, that their elected officials just simply do not care about them,” Tessa White, President of Oklahoma Pride said.
They say if the decision were to be reversed, it would uproot life for thousands of families.
“Look at how this would be affecting LGBTQ+ families and their children,” White said. “Health care, child custody, insurance, medical decisions that need to be made, and housing.”
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News 4 has reached out to Senator Deevers, Representative Olsen, as well as other legislators who back the resolution, but we have not heard back.
Freedom Oklahoma says it will continue to help comfort those in times of uncertainty.
“I hope that in this moment, when it feels like despair is heavy, that we can continue to create spaces for people to come together and to find joy and community and live our full lives with our spouses and our partners and our families, as we always have here,” McAfee said.
It is unclear if the resolution will be heard in the state senate, which cannot direct the actions of the nation’s highest court.
