LGBTQ+ Rights Icon Jim Obergefell Loses Election
What Jim Obergefell was able to do in the Supreme Court, he was not able to achieve in Tuesday’s Ohio election: come out victorious.
The LGBTQ+ rights icon, whose Supreme Court case, Obergefell vs. Hodges, ushered in marriage equality in 2015, failed to win his election to the Ohio legislature.According to unofficial results, Obergefell lost 61.7 percent to 38.3 percent to Republican incumbent attorney D.J.
Swearingen.“The results were not what we were hoping for, but that does not mean I will stop fighting,” Obergefell said in a statement shared with The Cincinnati Enquirer. “I will always be a champion for all Ohioans, and I will continue to fight for the issues that matter the most to our district.”Obergefell became a marriage equality activist after his longtime partner, John Arthur, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.A law in Ohio prohibited people of the same sex to marry, so Obergefell and Arthur married in Maryland on an airport tarmac, where same-sex marriages were legal.
Arthur died three months later, but Ohio refused to recognize the couple’s marriage.Obergefell sued, and his case, consolidated with others from Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee, resulted in the U.S.
