A conversation with Jim Obergefell, co-author of Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky
In June, 2015 the Supreme Court decided in Obergefell v Hodges that gay marriage became the law of the land. In the six years that followed, gay marriage has been routinely accepted across the United States and few blink twice when someone mentions his husband or her wife. Richard Wolinsky interviewed Jim Obergefell, the man whose name appears on the decision, a year later while he was on tour for the book Love Wins, which he co-authored with Debbie Cenziper. This podcast is being posted on the day normally reserved for San Francisco’s annual Gay Pride Parade, cancelled for the second year in a row due to the pandemic, as a way to look back and be prepared looking forward to a time when gay rights will no longer be denied for the shabby arguments put forward in the name of religion. This podcast was previously posted on July 13, 2016.
Jim Obergefell’s husband John in Ohio was dying when he was approached by an attorney who explained that because the state did not recognize gay marriages from other states, Jim’s name would never appear on John’s death certificate. Jim and John both agreed to go for it, and the result, in June 2015 in the case Obergefell v Hodges, the Supreme Court made gay marriage the law of the land. Since then he has become a spokesperson for gay rights around the country.
In this compelling discussion recorded on June, 22, 2016, Jim Obergefell talks about the case, about his relationship, and about how his life has changed in the year following the decision.