As Democrats and Republicans embrace diametrically different party platforms in regard to the LGBTQ community, the presidential race has become one of the most divisive ones yet. To learn what’s at stake for queers this election cycle, we caught up with Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in last year’s marriage equality case, to get his thoughts on the recent political happenings.
Obergefell, who’s out with a new book called, Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality, reminisced about last year’s same-sex marriage victory with HuffPost’s Alex Berg on our recent episode of “Queer the Vote,” where we analyze politics through an LBGTQ lens. But Obergefell went on to emphasize what’s at stake this November with a Republican platform that’s being considered its most anti-LGBTQ in history.
“Our status as equal Americans is at stake because the GOP clearly does not consider us human,” Obergefell said. “They don’t consider us worthy of really anything and if we don’t fight against that and if we don’t get our family, our friends, our allies to stand with us and to fight against that, l’m scared about what the future holds for us.”
While Obergefell said “everyone should vote their conscience,” he said anti-Hillary Democrats should consider the consequences of either sitting out this election, voting for a third-party candidate or, “even worse,” voting for the GOP.
“We have got to have a Democrat in the White House and we have got to make sure every election, not just presidential, but every local, state election, we’re out there voting for the progressives,”Obergefell said. “For the candidates who actually stand for ‘We the People’ and fight for all of us.”
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