Watch Gay Marriage Leader Receive a Sweet Call From Obama Live on CNN
[There was a video here]
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision to legalize same-sex marriage across the country was announced this morning, President Obama called lead plaintiff Jim Obergefell to send his congratulations. I wonder if the president knew he’d be put on speakerphone and broadcast on CNN.
There are few feelings more mortifying than realizing that the telephone conversation you’ve been having was not the private tête-à-tête you expected, but entertainment for the whole room. So let’s hope for Obama’s sake that he was clued in about this one in advance.
Obergefell took up the fight for marriage equality after his home state of Ohio disallowed him to list his name as the surviving spouse on the death certificate of his husband and partner of 21 years. The pair had been married in Maryland, where same-sex marriage was legal, months before Obergefell’s husband died of ALS, but Ohio did not recognize their union. “Today’s ruling from the Supreme Court confirms what millions across this country already know to be true in our hearts: our love is equal,” Obergefell said in a heartfelt statement this morning. “That the four words etched onto the front of the supreme court, ‘Equal justice under law,’ apply to us, too.”
[There was a video here]
