Last night, Bradley students and community members alike gathered to hear the moving testimony of Jim Obergefell, and his journey to the Supreme Court to fight for marriage equality.
As a self-described “accidental activist,” Obergefell found himself on the forefront for civil rights five years ago, as he would go on to be a part of a pivotal supreme court case on marriage equality: Obergefell v. Hodges.
Co-sponsored by Sociology Club and Common Ground, Obergefell walked the audience through his life as a closeted gay man, his struggles of coming out, finding and losing the love of his life and the fight for equal rights.
“It was nice to be able to talk about a group that has been criticized by the media and by people so much and to bring to light this story that in its essence is something every person can connect with: loving someone [and] losing someone,” Kara Holder, a vice president of Sociology Club, said.
Of the community members in attendance, Elizabeth Lappin said she came out to hear Obergefell’s story firsthand and was proud to see the direction the LGBTQ+ movement is going as a bisexual woman.
“When I was in college, you didn’t talk about being [LGBTQ+] … It happened, but it was those people over there. If you were, you kept quiet,” Lappin said. “For me, coming and seeing this, I broke down into tears multiple times. As an adult, seeing the wave go across the country of acceptance and just being able to say I’m a legal person no matter who I fall in love with is huge to me, so [there were] a lot of warm fuzzies for me today.”
President of Sociology Club Everley Davis said the club invited Obergefell to continue bringing in speakers who discuss impactful and imperative issues in the country.
“Last year, we did [Black Lives Matter founder] Patrisse Cullors, and that was more based on race, but she was also a queer speaker, so we wanted to kind of go with the flow and the trend of the times as well … so we wanted to bring someone that was going to talk about LGBTQ+ rights,” Davis said. “[Obergefell] just fit perfectly, and he’s so friendly … I wanted someone that was going to be personable and not just lecture at us, so that’s how we got to him.”
According to Sarah Whetstone, the faculty advisor for Sociology Club, Obergefell’s personality and ability to communicate his emotions made bringing him to campus an easy decision.
“Behind all of the abstract debates about laws and policies and legal philosophy, the real heart of it all is real people and their stories … I think it can be easy to speak about unjust, unequal laws in dispassionate terms and forget that these laws affect everyday people,” Whetstone said. “That’s the big thing for me, is that I think he puts a human face and a human struggle to this fight and this history.”
Davis said she hopes to see this event continue to open the discussion about this civil rights movement and the acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community.
“I hope to see people be more receptive to LGBTQ+ issues [on campus] and I think … it would be cool to see more Common Ground on campus, too,” Davis said. “We partnered with them for this event because it felt like it worked perfectly with what their club stands for. So for their events like Pride Prom … I want to see [more] people at those and feel welcome.”
