By Marisa Loranger, #CollegiateLife Editor.
Gay rights have changed a lot throughout the years and in 2015 the Supreme Court has decided that marriage is a human right. This has brought forth new rights for same-sex couples.
Douglas Webster, a clinicial professional at Delta College’s dental hygiene program, has taken advantage of the court’s ruling. Webster and his husband were the first same-sex couple in Midland county to apply for a marriage license. The couple has been together for 20 years and finally tied the knot July 12.
“We now are privileged to, like, 1,200 rights that married couples have,” explains Webster.
Webster and his husband worried that if something happened to one of them they wouldn’t be able to make decisions for each other or wouldn’t be allowed visitation rights in hospitals. Even when civil unions became an option, insurance companies told same-sex couples that it wasn’t a real marriage; therefore, they wouldn’t cover them.
“So now if we’re traveling and my husband ends up in the hospital, I am not denied the right to see him or to make health decisions,” explained Webster.
Not everyone is happy about the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Delta College student Nicole Carissa explains, “I don’t agree with it because I’m religious; I’m Christian so it goes against my beliefs.”
Opposition from religious groups has not stopped Webster and his husband from regularly attending church. The church they belong to is accepting, so the couple decided that they would get married there after a Sunday morning service.
“The most exciting thing about it was when our minister finished the vows. He said, ‘and the congregation responds’ and 170 people were on their feet applauding and so he had to make them quit to end the service,” says Webster.
Whenever the Supreme Court makes a decision, it changes the country we live in. The day the Supreme Court made gay marriage legal, Webster’s world changed. He will never forget where he was when he heard the news.
“It was Friday morning; we turned on the news and they made the announcement. We poured another cup of coffee and talked about it and decided we better get a license before the republicans found a way to screw it up,” says Webster.
In spite of recent celebration for LGBT Americans, there are still certain rights they are denied. In some states, same-sex couples can’t adopt children, they can be fired for their sexual orientation or gender identity and they can be denied housing. Webster hopes the next LGBT fight is for housing and job protection.
“You know it’s like the segregation thing; it’s just going to take a while for people to get there. There’s been hate groups that have demonized it, you know, they have said all kinds of lies. And I think as more people come out, people think ‘wait… that’s my nephew, that’s my son, that’s the kid next door,’” explains Webster.
The Supreme Court’s decision to classify same-sex marriage as a human right has brought forth much discussion. One of the many questions has been about the Supreme Court’s authority to make a national decision that affects all states.
Ryan Peterson, a political science professor explains, “It’s not so much that they have the right to rule on marriage per se. It’s that somebody somewhere out there believes that a law pertaining to marriage violates a constitutional right and what the Supreme Court has is the authority to exercise judicial review.”
Some 2016 presidential candidates have promised the overturn of the recent Supreme Court decision.
“…the average American thinks the president can do far more than they actually can. The only way that a president could overturn that would be by getting lucky enough to have enough retirements on the [Supreme] court. That they could replace those justices with more originalist, conservative associate judges on the court who would shift the balance and then be willing to overturn the decision,” explains Peterson.
More and more Americans seem to approve of equal rights for LGBT members.
“I feel like it was a good decision because everyone deserves the same opportunity that straight people do,” explains Benjamin Warren, a Delta College student.