Lawmaker (GOP) Said It Would Nott Be Too Controversial to Ban Marriage Equality Again
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| Michigan state Rep. Josh Schriver (R) |
Anti-LGBTQ+ Michigan state Rep. Josh Schriver (R) said that gay marriage should be “illegal again,” adding, “This is not remotely controversial, nor extreme.” Democrats and numerous social media commenters have criticized him for his statement. Earlier this year, he was stripped of his office staff, budget, and committee assignments after sharing a social media post pushing a racist and antisemitic conspiracy theory.
To support his point, Schriver used a rape metaphor, writing, “20 years ago, Barack Obama was more conservative on marriage than many Republicans today. America only ‘accepted’ gay marriage after it was thrusted into her by a perverted Supreme Court ruling. America 2124 doesn’t have to be as dysfunctional as America 2024.”
Furthermore, a 2023 Gallup poll showed that 71% of Americans support same-sex marriage, meaning that Schriver’s desire to criminalize would be both controversial and extreme.
“Please explain how dissolving my marriage, or that of the hundreds of thousands of other same-sex couples living in America, provides a benefit to your constituents or anyone else,” gay Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) wrote on X in response to Schriver’s post. “You’re not interested in helping Michiganders. You want only to hurt those you hate. Shame on you.”
During the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Nessel told Republicans who wanted to overturn the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage ruling, “You can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hand!” She is married to a woman.
Fellow state Rep. Jason Morgan (D), who is gay, wrote of Schriver’s post, “This is definitely both controversial and extreme, along with anti-family. I grew up believing I’d never be able to get married and I’m not going back.”
Schriver holds other anti-LGBTQ+ views. In a November 19 post supporting anti-LGBTQ+ book banning, he claimed that parents should know that their children are being shown “obscene” books in public schools.
While discussing gender-affirming care for trans youth in January, he wrote, “If we are going to stop this for anyone under 18, why not apply it for anyone over 18? It’s harmful across the board and that’s something we need to take into consideration in terms of the endgame.”
Schriver has posted racist and antisemitic content in the past
On February 6, Schriver used his X account to re-post a meme initially shared by anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec. The image, which remains on Schriver’s X account, says, “The great replacement!” and shows a world map largely populated with Black people and small groups of white people clustered in northern America, northern Europe, and southern Australia. The map is not an accurate representation of global racial diversity.
The Great Replacement Theory is an antisemitic, anti-immigration, white supremacist conspiracy theory that claims rich Jews want to “replace” white Americans and Westerners with non-white immigrants and people of color (especially Black people and Muslims) to fundamentally change the nation’s racial makeup and political culture.
Schriver’s congressional district is 90% white. He won nearly 65% of the district’s vote in 2022.
Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate (D), who is Black, condemned the post two days later, calling it a “blatantly racist,” “deplorable,” and a “false theory” that put Schriver’s “ignorance on full display” and “proliferat[ed] obvious hate.”
On Monday, Tate stripped Schriver of his seats on the House committees for natural resources, environment, tourism and outdoor recreation, as well as his sole office staff member and $132,000 office budget, The Guardian reported. Schriver will still be allowed to vote.
“I will not allow the Michigan House of Representatives to be a forum for the proliferation of racist, hateful and bigoted speech,” Tate said in a statement. “Representative Schriver has a history of promoting debunked theories and dangerous rhetoric that jeopardizes the safety of Michigan residents and contributes to a hostile and uncomfortable environment for others.”
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