Today marks the two year anniversary of Obergefell v. Hodges passing in the Supreme Court. This law allowed same sex couples to get married. According to a recent study nearly two thirds of Americans support same sex marriage since the ruling happened.
Democratic candidate for Lubbock’s 19th Congressional District Dan Epstein held a press conference today honoring the anniversary of the historic case.
“One of the most important things it means is that now equality can ring for marriage across the land,” Epstein said in his remarks.
Epstein said that he hopes the country and Lubbock keep moving in the direction of equality.
“It’s really important today that I think we mark this day here in Lubbock and across Texas, across this great land. We have made another great milestone fulfilling the promises our country was made on,” Epstein said speaking about equality.
A same sex couple and their four-year-old daughter joined Epstein to talk about their experiences being a same sex couple in Lubbock. Anna Charoen Sukvipade said it was most difficult handling health care before the law passed.
“My wife has a job that offered full coverage, except it wasn’t for us [same sex couples]. Because of that we were not able to cover me during my pregnancy with my daughter and save a vast amount of money,” Charoen Sukvipade said.
Although she said things have gotten much better for her and her family, she says there is still more progress to be made.
“The stigma is always going to be out there against us. With our daughter, we don’t want that to affect her. We don’t want her to feel like there’s a jade in the world and that people love her no matter what,” she said.
Coincidentally the Supreme Court announced on the anniversary of this ruling they would hear another case concerning LGBT rights. The case will be heard this fall and considers the right to refuse business based on sexual orientation because of religious reasons under the first amendment.