On this date in 1966, civil rights advocate James Obergefell was born in Sandusky, Ohio, the youngest of six in a Catholic family. His mother worked as a librarian at the Sandusky Public Library. His father was a blue-collar factory worker who worked for Scott Paper and other companies and served in World War II as a U.S. Navy Seabee.
His name (pronounced Oh-BUR-guh-fell with a hard g) is synonymous for many with marriage equality since he was the lead plaintiff in Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage throughout the U.S.
When he was 8 or 9 he started cutting out men’s underwear pages from Sears and Penney’s catalogues. As he got older, he realized what attracted him sexually and how it set him apart, so he continued to hold it inside.
“I think this is one of the most damaging things religion has been used for: to convince LGBTQ kids that that they are damaged, broken, or evil,” Obergefell said. “Those kids grow up doubting themselves, or worse, hating themselves. As they struggle, they look to their family for love and support and often experience the opposite.” (Speech to an American Atheists group in 2019)
He started drifting away from the Catholic Church in high school and eventually converted to Episcopalianism, what he came to call “Catholic lite.” The minister told him he didn’t have to believe everything he or the Episcopal Church said. “Within a year, I finally realized I didn’t believe in God, Jesus, or a higher power of any sort. I prefer to believe in my fellow humans, and that knowing right from wrong is based on how I want to be treated by others, not because of religion or a threat of eternal damnation.” (Ibid.)
He earned a degree in secondary education and German from the University of Cincinnati and attended graduate school at Bowling Green State University. He met his future husband John Arthur in 1992 at Uncle Woody’s, where Arthur was sitting at the bar drinking a gin and tonic.
He taught high school German and worked in real estate and I.T. He and Arthur, “his first serious boyfriend,” he told the Washington Post, built a life for themselves as a gay couple in Cincinnati, working together as consultants to various clients.
Though they could legally marry in several states, that wasn’t the case in Ohio, which would not even recognize legal marriages elsewhere. Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment by 61.7% in 2004 that said marriage is only between one man and one woman. Not all employers allowed gay couples to share an insurance policy.
Obergefell and Arthur had been together about 18 years when Arthur was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Arthur started receiving hospice care in March 2013 and they decided to get married. They chose Maryland as their best option and flew there in a medical transport jet. Paulette Roberts, Arthur’s aunt, went along. She had obtained an ordination earlier allowing her to perform weddings.
Arthur died three months and 11 days after the wedding. Officials put Obergefell’s name on the death certificate as Arthur’s spouse, but Ohio appealed the decision and won. Obergefell appealed to the U.S.Supreme Court. In 2015 his case and several similar cases were consolidated as Obergefell v. Hodges. Hodges was director of the Ohio Department of Health.
There were two basic issues: 1.) Does the 14th Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex? and 2.) Does the 14th Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state?
Oral arguments were heard April 28 and a decision rendered on June 26. It was 5-4 in favor of Obergefell et al. The court held that same-sex marriage bans violated the 14th Amendment’s due process and equal protection clauses. Justice Anthony Kennedy authored the majority opinion, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Anthony Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito each wrote dissenting opinions.
Several Republican presidential candidates soon endorsed religious freedom laws to respond to the court’s ruling. “They are pandering to their base and they are trying to create problems where there aren’t problems,” Obergefell said. “Religious freedom is still guaranteed by the constitution. There is nothing about marriage equality that forces any single religious person to perform a marriage that they are against, based on their belief.” (The Guardian, July 4, 2015)
In 2016 the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati honored Obergefell with its Everyday Freedom Hero award, given to people whose actions reflect the ideals of the underground railroad. The Cincinnati City Council declared April 28 (the day SCOTUS oral arguments were made) John Arthur Day in honor of the couple. Mayor John Cranley referred to Obergefell as a “historic figure” for the city and the nation.
The notion of equality still stuck in Justice Thomas’ craw, however, and in 2022 he called for the court to revisit Obergefell after it overturned Roe v. Wade. Obergefell ran that year for the U.S. House and lost to Republican incumbent D.J. Swearingen, 61.7% to 38.3%.
When South African vintner Matt Grove was looking to create a wine label dedicated to his late aunt, a lesbian who led the first class-action suit against NBC in pursuit of workplace gender equality, “He just googled ‘gay marriage’ and my name and face was the first to pop up,” laughed Obergefell. Their first wine donated proceeds to support marriage equality. (Wine Enthusiast, June 2024)
With Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Debbie Cenziper, Obergefell co-authored “Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality.” He is executive producer of the multimedia JustMarried Project, which shares the stories of couples, activists and allies who helped make marriage equality a reality legally, legislatively and culturally.
He was the recipient in 2026 of FFRF’s Forward Award, bestowed to exemplary supporters of freethought or separation of church and state.
