Love Wins by Debbie Cenziper and Jim Obergefell

In June of last year, rainbow filters glittered over our Facebook profiles as a sweeping piece of federal legislation was enacted in the United States which then reverberated across that country and many other parts of the watching world: the right for same-sex couples to marry, and the requirement that all states issue and recognise such unions. It was a celebration that we immediately understood to be of longstanding cultural and historical importance, but what was the story behind Obergefell vs. Hodges? And why will we remember these names as we do Roe vs. Wade or _ Loving vs. Virginia_?

Love Wins traces this fight back to one of its many origins – the story of Jim Obergefell and John Arthur. It explores the difficulties each man experienced growing up amidst the homophobia of the early 1970s, and how they fell in love over twenty years ago. The backdrop is Cincinnati, Ohio – that bastion of religious conservationism which gave us organisations such as ‘Citizens for Decent Literature’, and where one could lose one’s job because of sexual preference.

When John Arthur is diagnosed with a crippling neurodegenerative disease (ALS), the couple decide to travel interstate so that they can marry, only to have their union, in effect, nullified under Ohio State law upon their return. It is only when a civil-rights lawyer, Al Gerhardstein, takes their case all the way to the Supreme Court that this otherwise deeply personal account of love and loss becomes the subject of a national debate.

Love Wins is an informative and extraordinarily powerful book, showing us that historic change doesn’t take place overnight, that, instead, change is brought about by the actions of individuals who have been fighting for years. It is not only a significant account of recent events, but also a reminder that Australia has a very long way to go for LGBTIQ rights and same-sex marriage laws.


Robert Frantzeskos