In 1970, Jefferson County, Kentucky turned an unlikely epicenter for LGBTQ+ rights when a lesbian couple turned the primary to sue for marriage equality.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Do you know—the primary court docket case in the US preventing for the fitting of two girls to marry one another occurred in Jefferson County, Kentucky? That’s the story our pals on the Filson Historic Society shared with us for October’s installment of “This Month in Historical past,” in recognition of LGBT Historical past Month.
We spoke with Emma Johansen, a collections assistant on the Filson, to be taught concerning the landmark court docket case and about how Kentucky has performed an integral half within the struggle for LGBTQ+ equality.
“Historical past is type of in my blood,” Johansen stated. “I like to make use of it as an activist instrument to know that there are those that have fought for social justice and equal rights earlier than the folks which are preventing immediately. And I feel that we’ve got to honor them, and pay homage to them. Kentucky, as a state, has an immensely wealthy queer historical past that not many individuals would assume that we’ve got.”
“March for Justice” Louisville, 1987
On July 6, 1970, two girls — below the pseudonyms Tracy Knight and Marjorie Jones — went to the Jefferson County Clerk’s workplace to acquire a wedding license.
Regardless of the absence of any explicit Kentucky regulation banning same-sex marriages, the clerk denied the 2 their marriage license.
The 2 took their pursuit to court docket, twice, and it ended within the Jones v. Hallahan case earlier than the Kentucky Court docket of Appeals in 1973.
The court docket dominated towards Knight and Jones, they usually have been unsuccessful of their pursuit of their very own legally acknowledged union; however, as Johansen tells it, activists on the time knew they have been laying necessary groundwork that may finally repay.
“, the lengthy arc of historical past bends in the direction of justice,” Johansen stated. “This can be a widespread thread inside loads of social justice and equal rights actions. We’d fail now, however years down the road, it can set a precedent for future activists and future those that need to struggle for the trigger.”
To that time, Kentucky would discover itself at middle of the nationwide same-sex marriage debate once more in 2015. Within the Supreme Court docket case that granted marriage equality nationwide, a pair from Kentucky joined the go well with.
“It’s our accountability to recollect and honor the those that got here earlier than us and to be a greater ancestor for the folks that may come after us,” Johansen stated.
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