Written by Clarity Amrein, Community Content Coordinator, Downtown Main Library
This Pride Month, the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library (CHPL) is proud to honor the 10-year anniversary of the landmark Marriage Equality ruling through our oral history video series in collaboration with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
Since the reopening of the Downtown Main Library in July 2024, CHPL’s new Catherine C. and Thomas E. Huenefeld Cincinnati Story Center has captured dozens of local stories, uploaded hundreds of hours of oral history footage on their YouTube channel, and partnered with prominent organizations to archive local history.
Partnership with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
This past spring, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the Library commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the Marriage Equality Act, the legal right for same-sex couples to marry, which was achieved nationwide on June 26, 2015, with the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. This landmark ruling overturned state bans on same-sex marriage and required all states to recognize same-sex marriages.
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the CHPL Story Center had the honor of interviewing defense lawyer and civil rights attorney Al Gerhardstein, as well as key plaintiff and LGBTQ+ activist Jim Obergefell to discuss the challenges and successes of the case, legal strategies, and their outlooks on the future of marriage equality and LGBTQIA+ civil rights.
Oral History Interviews with Al Gerhardstein and Jim Obergefell
Visit the CHPL @cincylibraryarchive YouTube page to see the oral histories conducted with Gerhardstein and Obergefell, which will also soon be available on the Digital Library.
Alphonse A. Gerhardstein (born 1951) is a civil rights attorney in Ohio who has been litigating since 1976. He is best known nationally as lead counsel in the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision Obergefell v. Hodges, but has advocated for prisoners, victims of police misconduct, women seeking reproductive justice, as well as LGBTQIA+ causes throughout his career. He is also the founder of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, a nonprofit agency that advocates and litigates for criminal justice reform.
James Obergefell (born 1966) is an American civil rights activist and lead plaintiff in the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in the United States. Obergefell sued the state of Ohio in 2013 due to the state's lack of legal recognition of Obergefell's marriage to his husband, John Arthur (1967–2013). Obergefell was the Democratic nominee for the 89th legislative district of the Ohio House of Representatives in the 2022 election.
Catherine C. and Thomas E. Huenefeld Cincinnati Story Center
See these interviews and many other oral history interviews on our YouTube channel, including over 30 oral histories conducted for the 50-year anniversary of Cincinnati Pride to archive Cincinnati LGBTQIA+ history.
The Cincinnati Story Center is excited to continue building partnerships, collecting oral histories, participating in community events, and capturing Cincinnati stories!
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