WASHINGTON – Today the U.S. Supreme Court issued decisions in two cases, Hollingsworth v. Perry and United States v. Windsor, which overturned California’s ban on same-gender marriage and invalidated a section of the Defense of Marriage Act. Interfaith Alliance joined legal briefs in both cases urging these results and Interfaith Alliance President Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy issued the following statement celebrating today’s Supreme Court decisions:
The enormity of today’s decisions cannot be overstated. The combined impact of these two rulings puts our nation further down the inevitable and proper path towards full marriage equality for the LGBT community. All Americans should rejoice in today’s decisions because they bring us that much closer to fulfilling the promise of our Constitution. I am hopeful that today’s decision striking down DOMA as unconstitutional and overturning the Proposition 8 case on standing will be followed by continued victories in this fight for equality. That a majority of the Court recognized in the DOMA case that this was an issue of equal protection denied is no small victory.
To those critics who will try to characterize these decisions as a threat to their religious freedom, let me say they could not be more wrong. No members of the clergy can be required to perform a religious ceremony that goes against the dictates of their faith, and thanks to the protections afforded by the First Amendment nothing in today’s decisions changes that fact. Interfaith Alliance’s work for LGBT equality is not finished and we will not be finished until all Americans are afforded the rights restored today for the people of California.