Lawmakers in this US state are trying to repeal equal marriage

Lawmakers in North Dakota have passed a resolution calling on the US Supreme Court to overturn its 10-year-old ruling on “gay marriage”.

The Republican-sponsored House Concurrent Resolution 3013, which was passed by 52 votes to 40 in the North Dakota House of Representatives on Monday (24 February), urges the court to “restore the definition of marriage to a union between one man and one woman”.

The resolution described the 2015 ruling in Obergefell vs Hodges – which required all 50 states and the District of Columbia to perform and recognise the marriages of same-sex couples on the same terms and conditions as those of opposite-sex partners – as “flawed… illegitimate overreach [which] arbitrarily and unjustly rejected the definition of marriage”.

The resolution reads: “The 69th Legislative Assembly rejects the United States Supreme Court decision in Obergefell vs Hodges and urges the Supreme Court to overturn the decision and leave unaddressed the natural definition of marriage as a union between one man, a biological male, and one woman, a biological female.”

Republican representative Bill Tveit, the lead sponsor of the resolution, said marriage had always been defined as between a man and a woman until the introduction of same-sex marriage.

“It’s past time for North Dakota citizens to speak their displeasure with the Supreme Court decision and call for a restoration of the definition of marriage as only the legal union between a man and a woman,” he added.

“Two cannot conceive and birth a child except for the coming together of a female and a male. You cannot have a country without children.”

He went on to say that if “same-sex couples desire a collaborative union of a sort, or a legal bonding, they must call it anything but marriage”.

In response, Democrat Austin Foss said he could not believe he now had to defend his right to be married.

“I don’t go into your church or your home and force you to relabel your relationship just because I don’t agree with it. That’s not North Dakota nice, that’s not even Christian-like,” he added.

In a letter written to members of the House Judiciary Committee before the vote, Grand Forks resident Liz Legerski urged lawmakers to vote against the resolution, saying she recently celebrated her 22nd wedding anniversary and was “so glad” the Supreme Court’s decision gave her queer family and friends access to the “social recognition and many legal benefits” of marriage.

“Limiting marriage to only heterosexual couples is simply discriminatory,” she said.

The resolution will now be sent to the state senate for consideration.

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