This column is for LGBTQ+ Republican voters in Pennsylvania who are at risk of losing their right to marriage equality and seeing their marriages made illegal. Do you love your spouse enough to protect your marriage? Let’s find out.
Remember those assignments at the beginning of the school year, where you had to write about what you did over the summer break? That was a test of your writing skills. This year, as an adult—and an LGBTQ+ adult—you’re facing a real test: How much do you care about the person you call the love of your life and soulmate?
Many members of the Republican Party in both the State House and State Senate have expressed a desire to challenge marriage equality. If the Supreme Court, under the influence of Republican Justices like Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, follows through on their stated intentions, Pennsylvania Republicans would likely introduce legislation to annul your marriage. Leading this effort would be Senator Kim Ward, the Republican Senate Pro Tempore, who has a long history of blocking LGBTQ+ equality legislation. As Senate leader, she controls what gets brought to the floor for a vote, and she has consistently used her position to keep LGBTQ+ issues out of the conversation, rendering us invisible. Sound familiar? It’s reminiscent of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. Move over, Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Here’s how this could unfold: If Trump is re-elected, and Justices Thomas and Alito act on their ambitions, Pennsylvania Republicans will have the opportunity they’ve been waiting for to dismantle your marriage. After passing through the Senate and House, such legislation would land on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk. Gov. Shapiro, a champion for our rights, would veto it. But here’s the catch—Senator Kim Ward, who leads the Senate, could push for a vote to override the governor’s veto.
It’s no surprise that Senator Ward supports Donald Trump. Let me explain the Pennsylvania Log Cabin Republicans—those LGBTQ+ Republicans who support Trump are inadvertently supporting the end of their own marriages. While some may be indifferent to the fate of their marriage, many of us care deeply and will fight for the ones we love.
If you are so indifferent to your marriage that you’ll vote for someone who will take it away, what does that say about you? It says that you’d rather go back to the 1960s, when LGBTQ+ people were criminalized and invisible. That’s the world you support. That’s the world Pennsylvania Log Cabin Republicans want with Donald Trump.
This article was originally published by our partners at the Philadelphia Gay News.
