Carlos McKnight of Washington, waves a flag in support of gay marriage outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday June 26, 2015.
In February, North Dakota became the latest of at least nine states that have introduced legislation petitioning the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark decision granting marriage equality across the United States.
Legislation in at least five of those states is nearly identical, the result of an orchestrated campaign by MassResistance, an anti-LGBTQ+ organization designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Related:
Massachusetts, where the group is based, was the first state to recognize same-sex marriage, in 2004.
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The North Dakota measure, which is non-binding and would have no legal sway over the Supreme Court, states that the Legislature “rejects” the 2015 Obergefell ruling and urges the high court “to overturn the decision and leave unaddressed the natural definition of marriage as a union between one man, a biological male, and one woman, a biological female.”
The hate group isn’t making any secret of their role in the anti-marriage equality campaign.
“MassResistance has drafted text for state legislature resolutions that call on the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its infamous and illegitimate Obergefell ruling,” the group announces on its website, boasting, “More states to come!”
The organization has a long history attacking LGBTQ+ rights since it coalesced around the marriage equality fight in the early 2000s. Founder Brian Camenker has equated homosexuality with bestiality and polygamy; denied gay men died in the Holocaust; denounced Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for declaring Pride Month at the State Department; claimed crime against gay people is caused by “revulsion”; promoted conversion therapy; claimed the FBI and CIA are under queer control; and asserted that there are few elite gay athletes because “homosexual lifestyle.”
The group’s latest campaign is a return to their Christian nationalist roots.
“Marriage defined as ‘one man, one woman’ is a particular religious view,” Cody Schuler, advocacy manager for the ACLU’s North Dakota chapter, told NBC News after the state House there approved the resolution.
“It is not held by all religions, all societies or by nonreligious people, and so therefore it is dangerous to be making that kind of statement because it puts legislators on record as to how they might vote on law, on a binding law versus this nonbinding resolution,” Schuler said.
But lawmakers pitching Obergefell’s overturn are unrepentant about blurring the line between church and state, a goal MassResistance shares with groups like the Heritage Foundation, authors of Project 2025, Trump’s Christian nationalist blueprint for a second term.
In a much-maligned news conference appearance explaining his own copycat resolution, Michigan state Rep. Josh Schriver (R) declared, “Now is the time to reassert the sovereignty of Christ as our King. Now is the time to restore the authority of God and submit our will to he who knows what’s best.”
Obergefell “defaced the definition of marriage, undermined our God given rights, increased persecution of Christians and confused the American family structure,” Shriver said, before adding that the decision “widened a portal where gays, queers, transsexuals, polygamists, minor attracted persons and other perverts advance attacks on our children.”
He fled the room before taking any questions.
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