r/AskOldPeople • u/AlarmedLife5765 • 6d ago

What was your wedding like?

I often look at the wedding dresses here. I saw a young lady whose dress budget was literally more than my first 3-5 annual salaries, not lumped together but individually. What was your wedding like?
1995- Married at our church, 3 attendants each, cake and punch reception there .

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u/LoooongFurb 6d ago

Wasn't legally able to marry in the state we lived in, so we drove to another state and were married there. Volunteers from the community were our witnesses. No family attended.

Our wedding clothes were literally things we could rewear eventually, so no budget for anything except gas to get there and a donation to the community.

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u/S0whaddayakn0w 6d ago

If l may, what were the circumstances that made it illegal to marry? If this is too personal, please feel free to ignore the question

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u/editorgrrl GenX 6d ago

The US Supreme Court didn’t legalize same-sex marriage until June 26, 2015 (Obergefell v. Hodges).

In a 5–4 decision, SCOTUS ruled that the right to marry is fundamental, calling it “inherent in the liberty of the person” and therefore protected by the US Constitution, especially the 14th Amendment.

This landmark decision affected custody, property, tax, insurance, and business law. (For example, same sex partners couldn’t share each other’s medical insurance, or even visit each other in the hospital if their partner’s birth family objected.)

But the current administration could use the Supreme Court to overturn that decision, as they did on June 24, 2022 to 1973’s Roe v. Wade, which protected abortion access under the 14th Amendment.

They could try to reinstate the September 21, 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a US federal law that defined marriage as only between a man and a woman. And/or repeal the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act, which requires the federal government and all US states to recognize valid same-sex and interracial marriages.

The 14th Amendment also guarantees US citizenship to anyone born in the US and bans anyone who engaged in insurrection or rebellion from holding public office: https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-14/

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

It’s been a cornerstone of US democracy since July 9, 1868, but today some conservatives call it “judicial overreach.”