Jim Obergefell, who won a Supreme Court challenge to Ohio's ban on the recognition of same-sex marriage, calls himself an accidental activist.
What are you reading at the moment?
I’ve just finished Book of the Night: The Black Musketeers, a thriller by Oliver Pötzsch, a German screenwriter turned author. He writes a lot of historical fiction. I want to read Boy Erased by Garrard Conley, a memoir of his experience of being forced by his parents into “conversion therapy”, a church-sanctioned program to “cure” him of his homosexuality.
Your mother was a librarian – did you read much as a child?
Absolutely. Every memory I have of my mum, I picture her reading, often Agatha Christie novels, which I read too. One of my favourites is The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, because it was one of my mum’s favourites.
Can you recommend any good books on marriage equality?
I’ve just bought Higher Love by Paul Campion and Randy Johnson with Bobbi Buchanan. Paul and Randy were two of the co-plaintiffs in my Supreme Court proceedings.
Do you believe US President Trump when he says he doesn’t want to roll back the Supreme Court decision recognising same-sex marriage?
No. The Republican Party platform states that it condemns that Supreme Court decision and urges its reversal. I believe that President Trump will seek to appoint Supreme Court justices who will set back the cause of marriage equality by decades.
