GOP candidates need to clarify -- as the presidency goes, so goes my marriage?

Officiant Paulette Roberts, rear center, marries Jim Obergefell, left and John Arthur, terminally ill with Lou Gehrig's Disease, on a plane on the tarmac at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in July 2013. Arthur died several months later. Obergefell sought to have their marriage recognized on Arthur's death certificate in a lawsuit challenging Ohio's gay marriage ban that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on in June, invalidating states' prohibitions against same-sex marriage. (Glenn Hartong, Cincinnati Enquirer/AP Photo, File, 2013)

By Jim Obergefell
on August 05, 2015 at 5:38 AM, updated August 05, 2015 at 5:39 AM

As a proud Ohioan, I know quite well that the path to the presidency runs through the Buckeye State. Having lived here for the better part of five decades, I'm familiar with the fact that no successful presidential candidate since John F. Kennedy has won the White House without winning Ohio, and that no Republican candidate has ever won the presidency without securing our electoral votes. That's why the decision to host this year's first official Republican presidential primary debate in Cleveland this week wasn't the least bit surprising.

As the debate draws closer, I've found myself thinking about the often-repeated saying, "As Ohio goes, so goes the nation," and how this upcoming election could impact my marriage. When I look at my wedding ring, I see the honesty, trust and love I shared with my husband. And looking ahead, I need to know: Do the presidential candidates see the same thing, or do they see an opportunity to drive us apart? What will my marriage mean in 2016 and beyond if a candidate who opposes marriage equality wins the White House?

My late husband, John Arthur, and I married in Maryland in 2013. Although we shared our lives with one another for more than two decades, because of state law, Ohio refused to recognize our marriage. As a result, we waged a legal battle to force Ohio to do so, and following his passing, I continued on my own to ensure that I would be listed as John's surviving spouse on his death certificate.

This June, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that my marriage mattered. In Obergefell v. Hodges, it ruled that Ohio and every other state had to recognize the fundamental right of committed, loving same-sex couples to marry, and in doing so, established nationwide marriage equality. For millions of LGBT people and thousands of loving, committed same-sex couples, the momentous decision meant that for the first time, our relationships were truly equal in the eyes of the law.

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