LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — People celebrating Pride at a festival in downtown Lexington Saturday said they are concerned about the possibility that protection for same-sex couples, including marriage and intimacy, could be lost due to a future supreme court ruling.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion released Friday that the court should reconsider rulings that protected the right for same sex couples to marry, as well as be intimate. The court struck down Roe vs Wade, which protects the right to an abortion, the same day.
While Thomas’s opinion does not change any laws, it could lead to state laws and legal challenges that bring the issue back to the full court. Justice Samuel Alito wrote he wouldn't drop gay marriage protections because abortions are different because they end a potential life, he said.
“I’m just really scared it’s going to get worse and worse,” said Onyx Perkins, who was at the Lexington Pride Festival.
Some people LEX18 spoke with at the festival said the country is going in the wrong direction, going as far to say they were considering leaving to country so they could move someplace where the rights they care about are protected.
“It’s devastating, its infuriating,” said Mason Monaghan about Justice Thomas’s opinion. “We already have so little rights to begin with and to further strip those away from us is so insulting. It’s unbelievable.”
Some people said they felt helpless to the decisions being mad in DC, but added they can take the action of teaming up with each other to effect change. They pressed the importance of voting.
“You hear land of the free home of the brave then you just keep taking right after right after right,” said Reilly Wofford. “Is it truly the land of the free, or is it the land of what you want it to be?”
