This past summer in 2025, former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis asked the United States Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges. Obergefell v. Hodges legalized gay marriage in 2015 and grants “equal marriage rights to LGBTQ+ couples.”
While most legal experts do not expect this request to go anywhere, the push to illegalize gay marriage is still a terrifying prospect. This is especially true considering the conservative majority in court and a president who said in a Fox News interview that he “would strongly consider” appointing justices to overrule the decision to legalize gay marriage. While this is from an older interview and beliefs can change, Trump has restated this belief in various interviews and created an “executive order terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives”, which is a setback for LGBTQ+ individuals and other minorities.
Regardless of what legal decisions are made, the discourse surrounding the LGBTQ+ community is cruel and inhumane. Reinforcement of heteronormativity, normalization of hatred and religious backlash often lead queer individuals to think less of themselves. This can increase internalized homophobia, fear of coming out and dread for the future within the LGBTQ+ community.
The recent removal of queer education and representation is a form of heteronormativity. Heteronormativity is the “the belief, conscious or unconscious, that being heterosexual is the only natural or ‘normal’ sexual expression.” Trump issued an order on Jan. 29, 2025, requiring schools to teach so-called “patriotic education,” which whitewashes the chapters of U.S. history “related to race, gender, sexism, [and] homophobia.” Heteronormativity has a large impact on the mental well-being of queer people and how they view themselves and the implications of their sexuality. It can leave queer people feeling alienated and alone and enforces an “us vs. them” mentality that perpetuates homophobic mindsets.
Treating LGBTQ+ people as abnormal or different, whether intentional or not, is extremely harmful. It can lead queer people to internalize societal perceptions and ideas and look down upon themselves.
Hatred disguised as religious concern also causes drastic harm to queer people’s self-perceptions. I see it on social media constantly. Every time a gay couple posts happily on Instagram, the comments are filled with homophobes telling them to repent or they’ll go to hell. This contributes to internalized homophobia by normalizing cruelty. It also simultaneously gives religious people a terrible reputation, and overall benefits absolutely no one. Additionally, the normalization of the idea that discrimination is a difference in opinion encourages and empowers hateful people to continue careless and homophobic behavior.
The separation between religion and politics also continues to grow smaller. According to the second clause of the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof.” People should have the freedom to practice their religion, but dragging it into politics to justify the mistreatment of LGBTQ+ people is disrespectful. This hatred has caused queer individuals to feel ashamed, guilty and terrified for their future.
To members of the LGBTQ+ community, the unknown is the scariest of all. Questions constantly enter my mind about the future of the United States. Project 2025 is a far-right, 900+ page agenda with the goal of radically restructuring the executive branch. 47% of Project 2025 has already been completed. Project 2025 is also very evidently affiliated with Trump. In fact, it was written by at least “144 people who worked for the Trump administration or his campaign.” One goal of Project 2025 is to “gut LGBTQI+ workplace discrimination protections,” under Title VII, as well as to “reverse the 2024 Title IX rule, depriving LGBTQI+ students… of nondiscrimation protections in K-12 schools, colleges, and universities that get federal funding.” Some maps even indicate the states where gay marriage could be banned. All of this generates intense terror, leading queer people to repress their identities in fear of the consequences of coming out. Even if some states do not push down the LGBTQ+ community, we will never be free to be ourselves until everyone is free.
Despite this fear, hate, anxiety and sadness, I do not believe hope is lost. Think of the rainbow crosswalk in Florida, a memorial for the people fatally shot at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in 2016. The crosswalk had been recently painted black and white, but hundreds of protestors visited the crosswalk to color it again using rainbow chalk.
No one can erase the LGBTQ+ community. Those who are trying to take away LGBTQ+ rights do not deserve that power. YOU have power, and you should never be ashamed of who you are and how you love. No one can erase you.
I suspect the Supreme Court isn’t going to revisit Obergefell v. Hodges. You would have to prove that same-sex couples marrying harms anyone, and there is no evidence of that. Fact is, marriage equality for same-sex couples shouldn’t have taken as long as it did. There was never any constitutional justification for denying law-abiding, taxpaying Gay couples the same right to marry that Straight couples have always taken for granted. What more legal reasoning do you need?