吃瓜大本营

NEW YORK 鈥� Jim Obergefell, plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court case that established nationwide marriage equality today authored an to defiant Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis who refuses to issue marriage licenses to all eligible couples, citing religious objections to same-sex couples.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Jim Obergefell and brought the lawsuit against Kim Davis, continues to fight for the right of all loving couples to legally wed. In the letter, Jim recalls that his late husband鈥檚 dying wish was to have their marriage legally recognized by their home state of Ohio.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e imposing the same indignities on couples in Rowan County that John and I endured when Ohio would not legally recognize us as a married couple,鈥� writes Obergefell. 鈥淭hankfully, the law is now changed so that nobody should ever have to suffer the indignities that John and I have endured. No one is above the law, Kim, not even you.鈥�

Jim and John Arthur had lived in a long and committed relationship for 22 years. In spite of John鈥檚 2011 diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the couple 鈥� newly eligible to marry after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in Windsor 鈥搕raveled from their native Ohio to Maryland to legally wed. But when they returned to Ohio to live out John鈥檚 last days as a married couple, their home state refused to recognize them as married for any purpose, including refusing to acknowledge Jim as a surviving spouse on John鈥檚 death certificate. The U.S. Supreme Court鈥檚 watershed decision in Obergefell this June struck down all discriminatory state marriage bans as unconstitutional.

鈥淚 authored this letter to send the message loud and clear that love transcends all else. It鈥檚 not Ms. Davis鈥� job to judge whose love is worthy of recognition. Her job is to simply uphold the law. Equality and justice denied anywhere means equality and justice denied everywhere.鈥�

To sign the open letter with Jim in support of marriage equality, please visit: