Marriage equality didn’t threaten America. It expanded freedom

On Saturday, the United States will mark its 250th anniversary, and, shortly before that, on June 26, it marked 11 years of marriage equality for all Americans. Both occasions are celebrations of freedom.

We celebrate the freedom to speak our minds, build our lives, practice our faiths, and pursue happiness in our own way. Yet this year, as some far-right religious leaders renew and amplify calls to roll back marriage equality, it is worth asking one simple question:

What actually happened over the past decade after same-sex couples gained the freedom to marry?

The answer is remarkably ordinary and, some might even say, boring. Couples married. Families gained legal protections. And no one lost their freedom to adhere to their own traditions or beliefs.

It's really that simple.

Rewind a bit to before the historic 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that brought marriage equality to the entire country. For decades, opponents of marriage equality warned that recognizing same-sex couples would somehow threaten religious liberty, undermine marriage itself, weaken families, and unravel the social fabric of our nation. Quite dire predictions, right?

Spoiler alert: Marriage equality did not "destroy the sanctity of marriage." It didn't silence people of faith. It didn't force religious institutions to abandon their beliefs.

Instead, it allowed nearly 1.2 million Americans to participate more fully in one of our nation's most cherished institutions.

Jim Obergefell, Family Equality board member and lead plaintiff in Obergefell v. Hodges, said, "Justice Kennedy wrote in the Obergefell decision: 'No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family.' No matter how we define or form our families, those ideals make us something greater than we were. Each of us should have the freedom to live up to those ideals if we choose to."

A new report released last month by Interfaith Alliance makes this point: America can, and does, uphold both marriage equality and religious freedom. In fact, we have been doing exactly that for years. The report, developed through dialogue among religious leaders with differing theological views, affirms that civil marriage equality and religious liberty are complementary expressions of a free society—not competing values.

Too often, opponents of LGBTQ+ equality frame the issue as a conflict between LGBTQ+ rights and religious freedom. Yet as we reflect on our country's founding and history, we see that religious freedom was never intended to give one group—or the government—the power to determine how everyone else must live. In fact, our founders were in search of precisely the opposite when they made the long and dangerous trip across the Atlantic Ocean.

They were in search of religious freedom that protects the rights of each person and each faith community to follow their own beliefs without imposing those beliefs through the government's power.

That principle protects all of us.

It protects conservative Christians. It protects progressive Christians. It protects Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and people who hold the extraordinarily wide range of faiths and beliefs that make up America.

It also protects LGBTQ+ couples who want to marry, love openly, raise children, care for aging parents, celebrate milestones, practice their faith, and create stable homes rooted in commitment and care. Those couples are Americans first, and their agenda is to love, be loved, and, for some, have the security and protections that marriage provides.

It's not radical—but having this love and these families recognized under the law has been transformative and liberating.

For generations, LGBTQ+ people were told they could not fully participate in family life as defined by society. Marriage equality helped to change that. It allowed more people to access and embrace something deeply familiar: the value and warmth of family.

The evidence is all around us. Same-sex couples married. Families formed. Children flourished. Religious communities continued practicing their faith. Freedom expanded, and America became stronger for it.

A recent poll showed that support for marriage equality has dropped, specifically among more conservative Americans. The reasons why aren't entirely clear—but we do know that a minority of religious people have launched a campaign to weaken and undermine same-sex marriage altogether, again pitting same-sex marriage against religious freedom and family values.

If, as a country, we truly value family, our goal should be to uphold and uplift marriage equality and to ensure that every family has the opportunity to experience safety, stability, dignity, and belonging.

That is freedom. And that is what our country is all about.

Darra Gordon is CEO of Family Equality. Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush is an ordained Baptist minister and President and CEO of Interfaith Alliance.

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