Comedian Fortune Feimster marries her partner over fears Amy Coney Barrett will roll back LGBT+ rights on the Supreme Court
Amy Coney Barrett (Chip Somodevilla/Getty) and Fortune Feimster and her wife Jacquelyn Smith (Instagram)
Comedian Fortune Feimster has married her partner in fear that Amy Coney Barrett could roll back marriage equality when she is appointed to the Supreme Court.
Barrett is expected to be confirmed to the Supreme Court on Monday (26 October) following a vote in the Senate, with many people in the LGBT+ community fearing that the anti-LGBT+ conservative judge could roll back equal marriage.
Feimster opened up about her concerns around marriage equality in an interview with PEOPLE, telling the magazine that she married her partner Jacquelyn Smith because their right to marry may not be set in stone.
The couple announced their engagement in January 2018, and decided to tie the knot on Friday (23 October) on the patio of a rented house.
Fortune Feimster said there were ‘nerves about the Supreme Court’ after Amy Coney Barrett was announced as Trump’s nominee.
“I was excited,” Feimster said of their wedding. “We’ve been together for five-and-a-half-years. If you don’t know who you’re good marrying after five-and-a-half years, then you’re in trouble. So I knew it felt good, it felt right.”
The couple had originally planned to get married in the summer of 2020, but their wedding plans were halted by the coronavirus pandemic.
In the end, they got married with just two close friends in attendance, and both were tested for COVID-19 before attending.
Hopefully, marriage equality is here to stay. But we wanted to be more proactive and get married while we know we can.
Feimster said they “just decided” to get married because it’s impossible to predict when the pandemic will be over – but Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court was also hanging over them.
“I’m not going to lie, there were some nerves about the Supreme Court. After Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, all these people started talking about gay marriage again.
“On the first day of their session, two of the justices brought up gay marriage. I think I had posted something on Instagram, something like, ‘Oh man, this is nerve-wracking as a gay person.’ Especially because we were planning to get married.
“All these people were like, ‘Go get married now,'” Feimster said.
“Who knows what will happen? Hopefully, marriage equality is here to stay. But we wanted to be more proactive and get married while we know we can.
“It definitely got the ball rolling for us a lot faster. I mean, we were going to get married no matter what, but we were just like, ‘Why wait?’ We’ve been engaged for like two-and-a-half years. You just don’t know what will happen when the tide shifts so significantly with the Supreme Court.”
On Tuesday (20 October), James Obergefell – the man whose Supreme Court case led to the legalisation of equal marriage across the United States – spoke out against Barrett’s nomination.
Obergefell spoke at a virtual event organised by LGBT+ non-profit Family Equality, where he hit out at the nominee’s track record on queer rights and expressed concern about the future of marriage equality.
