As a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court reverberated across the country, essentailly legalizing same-sex marriage, the Four Corners area was celebrating its 6th annual Pride Festival. Barbara Balaguer, with the Four Corners Alliance for Diversity, said the mood during a festival parade Saturday along the Animas River Trail was outstanding and supportive./Courtesy photo

Party of two

Local celebration in sync with high court’s historic decision

by Tracy Chamberlin

The moment the decision came down from the high court, hundreds of bystanders waiting just outside the U.S. Supreme Court erupted in celebration.

The news quickly moved through Facebook, Twitter and every other social media site, spreading like wildfire across the nation and the globe. When word hit the Southwest, the party was already in full swing. And, it had been for days.

As the court announced its June 26 ruling in Obergefell vs. Hodges, essentially legalizing same-sex marriage in the U.S., the Four Corners Alliance for Diversity was already two days into its 6th annual Pride Festival.

Planning for the local event began a year ago, and its organizers couldn’t have predicted the serendipitous timing of the court’s decision.

“They couldn’t have picked a better time to have the dance party,” said Eugene Salaz, general manager at Animas City Theatre, where one of the festival’s signature events, the Pride Festival Dance Party, was held the night of the announcement.

Although no one dropped to one knee at the sold-out event, Salaz said he did witness several couples, who aren’t usually open about their relationships, holding hands.

“The mood there was just outstanding,” added Barbara Balaguer, chair of the alliance’s board of directors.

Festivities continued Saturday afternoon with the Animas River Float Parade. But with the waters of the Animas raging, the annual river parade turned into a river trail parade.

Balaguer, who after 3½ years as chair plans to pass the baton in July, said some of the more experienced took to their kayaks, but most simply walked the Animas River Trail where people lined the concrete path to show their support. “It was really moving … people were very happy for us.”

Durango City Councilors Sweetie Marbury and Dick White are two local residents who support the court’s decision.

Speaking as a citizen and not on behalf of the council, Marbury said, “I’m glad I lived long enough to see my friends and family treated equally under the law.”

She added that there was a time when women couldn’t vote, couldn’t own property and couldn’t make decisions about their reproductive health. “Times changed,”
she said. “The United States of America is moving forward, not standing still.”

Councilor White commented that the high court’s decision is the culmination of generations of changing perspectives on marriage. 

“Social and religious tensions around same-sex marriages will surely persist, just as racial tensions persist,” he said, “collectively, we are all too human to be totally accepting of social change. But step-by-step, the United States moves closer to fully embracing the ideal that all persons are created equal.”

The court’s decision immediately opens the doors to same-sex marriage across the nation, but here in the Southwest, the point is almost moot.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on a case last November making same-sex marriage legal in the Centennial State.

Unlike civil unions in the past, there was no difference in Colorado between the legal paperwork filed for a marriage between a man and a woman, or a man and a man, or a woman and a woman.

La Plata County Clerk and Recorder Tiffany Parker said no one came knocking on her door following Friday’s announcement, looking to exercise their new freedoms, likely because in this state those rights already existed.

Balaguer said the alliance, its members and supporters are fortunate to be a part of this community. “We feel accepted, we feel safe.”

She explained, however, that many people in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community have spent much of their lives being afraid, being in the closet. And although the Supreme Court’s ruling does give them a sense of validation and dignity, it isn’t like an on and off switch.

“We no longer feel marginalized,” she said, “but discrimination continues.”

At the heart of the court case, which is centered on a suit brought fourth in Ohio by James Obergefell, is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Often considered a swing vote on the high court, Kennedy was just that in a 5-4 decision for the plaintiff, Obergefell.

Kennedy wrote the opinion for the majority, which included justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

The court examined several other cases, along with Obergefell’s, but this lawsuit was ultimately the primary one.

The suit began in Ohio after John Arthur was diagnosed and ultimately died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. He and his partner, Obergefell, had been together for decades and recently married in Maryland, where same-sex marriage was legal.

Following Arthur’s passing, Obergefell filed suit because he wanted to be listed as Arthur’s surviving spouse on the Ohio death certificate.

Kennedy wrote in the majority decision that marriage, “allows two people to find a life that could not be found alone … Since the dawn of history, marriage has transformed strangers into relatives, binding families and societies together.”

He called marriage the building block of the national community.

“For that reason, just as a couple vows to support each other, so does society pledge to support the couple, offering symbolic recognition and material benefits to protect and nourish the union.”

Ultimately, Kennedy turned to the 14th Amendment and each citizen’s right to liberty.

“The nature of injustice is that we may not always see it in our own times,” he wrote. “The generations that wrote and ratified the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment did not presume to know the extent of freedom in all of its dimensions, and so they entrusted to future generations a character protecting the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning.”

On the other side of the argument was Chief Justice John Roberts. Along with justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, Roberts did not see the case as a matter of liberty or equality, but of law.

“Whether same-sex marriage is a good idea should be of no concern to us,” Roberts wrote. “Under the Constitution, judges have power to say what the law is, not what it should be.”

He stated that many people would celebrate the court’s decision, and he did not begrudge those celebrations.

“But for those who believe in a government of laws, not of men, the majority’s approach is deeply disheartening,” he continued.

“Supporters of same-sex marriage have achieved considerable success persuading their fellow citizens – through the democratic process – to adopt their view … Stealing this issue from the people will for many cast a cloud over same-sex marriage, making a dramatic social change that much more difficult to accept.”

That’s the real battle ahead for supporters of the LGBT community. Although, everyone is now protected under the law with the same rights and privileges, it doesn’t necessarily mean everyone is welcome.

“The process of coming out still hasn’t changed,” Balaguer said. “We still feel different.”

While the court’s decision gives her protection under the law and a sense of validation, she said the reality is discrimination still exists. That’s why the court’s decision is just the beginning.

“One day it will no longer be same-sex marriage or gay marriage,” she said, “it will just be marriage.”