LANSING (WWJ) — Democrats in the Michigan House of Representatives are speaking out after Republican Rep. Josh Schriver of Oxford on Tuesday introduced a resolution urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage across the country.
Schriver — who has described himself as the “most conservative” representative in the state — is calling on the Supreme Court to reverse Obergefell v. Hodges, given that it is “at odds with the sanctity of marriage, the Michigan Constitution and principles upon which the country was established.”
He also says the court’s 2015 ruling has led to “increased instances of religious persecution.” A press release from House Republicans Tuesday said “some of these blatantly unjust instances have involved Michigan, including a Grand Rapids wedding venue which faced fines and harassment in 2022 for choosing to exercise their religious beliefs.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was among those to speak out Tuesday, writing on X, “right now, Republicans in the Michigan legislature are trying to get the Supreme Court to overturn marriage equality. Here’s my response to that: hell no.”
“We fought a long, hard fight to win marriage equality and we will always protect our family, friends and neighbors from hateful attacks. No one should be fired from their job or evicted from their home because of who they love or who they are,” Whitmer said in a video posted to X.
“This is personal for me, just like so many Michiganders and I'm not gonna allow the people I love most in the world to have less rights than anyone else. That's just not how we do things in Michigan. So let's stand up for our values and make Michigan a state that Michiganders can be proud to call home,” the governor said.
Democratic Rep. Denise Mentzer of Mount Clemens spoke at a press conference after Schriver introduced the resolution, saying she wonders “what’s really behind this?”
“What goes on in their bedroom is their damn business and I think it’s creepy and weird that Schriver is so damn worried about this that he’s putting this resolution out,” Mentzer said.
Rep. Mike McFall of Hazel Park is openly gay and spoke out against the resolution.
“At a time when we should be working together to ease the burden residents face, Republicans are more concerned with taking away hard-earned freedoms than finding real solutions,” McFall said at the press conference. “When will Republicans shift their attention from divisive cultural battles to real issues at hand?”
In 2015 the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that the 14th Amendment “requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state.”
There were nearly 14,000 married same-sex couple households in Michigan, according to data from the 2020 US Census.