LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Did you know—the first court case in the United States fighting for the right of two women to marry each other happened in Jefferson County, Kentucky? That’s the story our friends at the Filson Historical Society shared with us for October’s installment of “This Month in History,” in recognition of LGBT History Month.
We spoke with Emma Johansen, a collections assistant at the Filson, to learn about the landmark court case and about how Kentucky has played an integral part in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality.
“History is kind of in my blood,” Johansen said. “I love to use it as an activist tool to know that there are people that have fought for social justice and equal rights before the people that are fighting today. And I think that we have to honor them, and pay homage to them. Kentucky, as a state, has an immensely rich queer history that not many people would assume that we have.”
"March for Justice" Louisville, 1987
On July 6, 1970, two women — under the pseudonyms Tracy Knight and Marjorie Jones — went to the Jefferson County Clerk’s office to obtain a marriage license.
Despite the absence of any particular Kentucky law banning same-sex marriages, the clerk denied the two their marriage license.
The two took their pursuit to court, twice, and it ended in the Jones v. Hallahan case before the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1973.
The court ruled against Knight and Jones, and they were unsuccessful in their pursuit of their own legally recognized union; but, as Johansen tells it, activists at the time knew they were laying important groundwork that would ultimately pay off.
“You know, the long arc of history bends towards justice,” Johansen said. “This is a common thread within a lot of social justice and equal rights movements. We might fail now, but years down the line, it will set a precedent for future activists and future people that want to fight for the cause.”
To that point, Kentucky would find itself at center of the national same-sex marriage debate again in 2015. In the Supreme Court case that granted marriage equality nationwide, a couple from Kentucky joined the suit.
“It is our responsibility to remember and honor the people that came before us and to be a better ancestor for the people that will come after us,” Johansen said.
►Contact reporter Rob Harris at rjharris@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter (@robharristv) and Facebook.
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