Is Gay Marriage in Jeopardy?

Amy Schneider,
the current Jeopardy champion

With the current right-wing tilt of the Supreme Court, many of my friends are worried same-sex marriage is in danger. During dinners and zoom chats, they predict the religious Catholic Justices in the majority will find a way to invalidate future gay unions or to allow redneck states to not recognize their legitimacy. They cite the growing certainty that Roe V. Wade will be overturned any day now, even though the majority of the country favors abortion rights. I take a more hopeful stance, pointing out that there may be a thirst on the extreme right to strike down abortion access, but that same-sex marriage is not a rallying cry. Abortion is still a polarizing issue and the emotional argument can be made to moderates that it kills innocent babies (I don't agree with that, but those who are in the middle with no convictions can be pushed that way). While gay marriage is no longer seen by the middle of America as threatening or evil. Yes, there are hard-core haters out there who would gladly send all us gays into concentration camps, but this is not the mainstream view.

A lot of this change in attitude is due to the gradual "normalization" of the LGBT community in media. Through exposure in sitcoms, commercials, and even game shows, to a large part of America, we have become just like them--people who go to jobs and have families, not sex-crazed deviants out to recruit their kiddies. The current Jeopardy champion is a trans woman in a lesbian relationship, which she discusses openly and normally on the show. Gay couples are featured in commercials in casual ways. There's one for Dupinext where an average-looking guy is handed a paper-bag lunch for his daughter on the school bus by his husband. Gay couples also make appearances in ads for jewelry, cruise lines, and car-selling apps. (There was one for Spectrum Mobile, I think, with two men sharing a house, but they seemed more like roommates than life partners. Still, two adult men sharing an apartment is one thing, but a suburban house?) Reality shows also include gays. The current Amazing Race features a black gay pair.

You don't see abortion normalized in the same way. There are no commercials for your friendly abortion provider. There are no whacky abortion doctors on the new ABC sitcom. 

Maybe I am being naive, but I think taking away gay marriage would be seen as unnecessarily cruel and Chief Justice Roberts would not want that messing up his legacy. This right-wing Supreme Court may allow florists and bakers to refuse service to gay weddings, but I don't see them removing such a fundamental right as the marriage itself. And how would it work anyway? Would a gay couple moving from New York to Alabama have their union revoked in their new home? Would current gay marriage be OK, but no more moving forward? What about insurance for partners and benefits, would those dissolve? It would be a nightmare, and not one SCOTUS wants to take on.