When the Supreme Court handed down Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, marriage equality supporters celebrated in the streets. For many, it felt like the finish line. But for the people who fought to win that decision—plaintiffs, lawyers, grassroots organizers—it was never the end of the story.
They knew that rights are only as secure as the political will to defend them. And today, with cases like Kim Davis’ petition threatening to reopen old wounds, those same people are back on the front lines.
There’s Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff whose name became shorthand for the right to marry. Since 2015, he’s traveled the country telling his story, urging Americans not to take equality for granted. He’s been blunt: Obergefell wasn’t the end—it was the start of a new responsibility to protect what was won.
There’s April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, the Michigan couple whose adoption fight evolved into a challenge to their state’s marriage ban. They’ve faced backlash in their own community, but continue advocating for LGBTQ+ families in the Midwest.
There’s Mary Bonauto, the attorney sometimes called the “Thurgood Marshall of the LGBTQ+ movement,” who argued Obergefell before the Court. She’s still litigating cases that push back against discriminatory laws and policies—often in the same states now trying to roll back marriage rights.
And then there are countless others whose names will never make the news:
Couples who marry in defiance of local hostility. Parents fighting to protect both of their names on a child’s birth certificate. Activists holding town hall meetings in places where even showing up takes courage.
These defenders know that equality isn’t self-sustaining—it’s something you fight for every day. They understand that the fight is personal, and that the stakes aren’t measured in abstract legal doctrine, but in the dignity, safety, and stability of real families.
If there’s one lesson from the last decade, it’s this: progress isn’t a straight line. It bends and twists, moves forward and back. And when it starts to bend backward, it’s people—ordinary, stubborn, unapologetic people—who grab hold and pull it toward justice again.
The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. These are the hands doing the bending. And they’re not letting go.
End of Series – Civil Rights Under Fire will continue as a recurring Herald category, tracking every attempt to undermine equality in America—because vigilance is the only thing that keeps rights from becoming relics.
The Humane Herald 