LGBTQ+ advocates on LI celebrate Supreme Court's decision to reject request to consider overturning same-sex marriage

Long Island gay rights advocates breathed a sigh of relief Monday as the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request to consider overturning its landmark decision from one decade earlier legalizing same-sex marriage.

But even as LGBTQ+ advocates celebrated that gay marriage was no longer in immediate danger, they warned that declaring victory is premature, citing the ongoing challenges against transgender individuals, both federally and locally on Long Island.

The justices, without comment, turned down a petition by Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who gained national attention when she refused — citing her religious beliefs — to issue same-sex marriage licenses after the court's 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Revisiting the gay marriage precedent and hearing Davis' case would have required approval of at least four of the nine justices.

'Glimmer of hope'

"Today’s decision is a victory for love, families, and the millions of couples whose lives have been strengthened by the freedom to marry," said David Kilmnick, president and founder of the LGBT Network in Hauppauge. "It reaffirms something simple and profoundly American — that all families deserve equal protection under the law."

Devon Zappasodi, director of Bellmore-based PFY, which provides support for LGBTQ+ community and is part of the Long Island Crisis Center, said Monday's decision reinforces the idea that same-sex marriage equality is "settled matter" in U.S. law.

"This is reaffirming the notion of dignity," Zappasodi said. "This is reaffirming that there is access to rights. I think this is a glimmer of hope for all of us."

Davis' attorneys had asked the high court to overturn a lower court ruling directing her to pay $360,000 in damages to a couple she denied a marriage license to in 2015. Davis spent five nights in jail after she was found in contempt of court for defying a federal order to issue licenses to same-sex couples.

Mathew Staver, an attorney Davis with the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which opposes gay marriage, said in a statement that his group would continue fighting to reverse the court's "unconstitutional opinion" in Obergefell.

"It is not a matter of if but when Obergefell will be overturned," Staver wrote. "Kim Davis’ resolve will raise up many more challenges to this wrongly decided opinion. The day will come. The days of Obergefell are numbered."

But Joseph Milizio, managing partner of Vishnick McGovern Milizio in Lake Success, where he founded the firm’s LGBTQ+ representation practice, said the court's decision Monday "makes sense from both a legal and logical perspective."

He noted that federal law currently requires all states and government agencies to recognize same-sex spouses while several state constitutions, including New York, have also enshrined its provisions.

"Perhaps more importantly, the public has no issues with same-sex marriage," said Milizio, who is married to his husband, Kevin Claus.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre, which opposes same-sex marriage, declined to comment Monday on the Supreme Court's inaction.

Not the 'finish line'

While same sex couples celebrated a win Monday, Zappasodi added that there is an "onslaught happening right now, particularly as it relates to the right of our transgender, gender-nonconforming, non-binary community members."

Locally, a New York appeals court last month paused enforcement of Nassau County's controversial ban on transgender athletes in girls' and women's sports, only days after a lower court threw out litigation challenging the ban.

Juli Grey-Owens, executive director of Gender Equality New York, an education and advocacy group based in Huntington Station, said she doubts that Monday's decision closes the book on marriage equality.

"I fully expect continued challenges from the right — and, if possible, even from within the federal government itself," Grey-Owens said.

Kilmnick agrees, pointing to Roe v. Wade being overturned in 2022.

"I don’t see this as a finish line," he said. "If the fall of Roe taught us anything, it’s that no hard-won right is ever guaranteed. Rights that took decades to win can disappear overnight when we assume the fight is over."

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.