Media Contact
With the Supreme Court poised to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide, there may be far-reaching implications for the legal rights of other groups, including the LGBTQ community.
Katherine Sender
Professor of Communication
Katherine Sender, professor of communication and feminist, gender, and sexuality studies at Cornell University, is an expert on LGBTQ media. She says the abortion opinion issued by the Supreme Court questions the right to privacy that also underlies the overturning of anti-sodomy laws, and thus marriage equality.
Sender says:
“I see a direct link between the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade and the risk of push back on LGBTQ civil rights. We are already seeing parallel conservatism with Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill. But the Roe v. Wade issue is a little different because it puts in question the right to privacy that also underlies the overturning of anti-sodomy laws, and thus marriage equality.”
“What we are seeing is the conservative right wing of the Republican party playing the long game of bringing reactionary judges into courts at all levels, now most worryingly the Supreme Court, such that the courts are actually much more conservative — anti women’s rights, anti-LGBTQ rights — than the population at large.”
Nelson Tebbe
Professor of Law
Nelson Tebbe is a professor of constitutional law at Cornell Law School and an expert on religious freedom. He can discuss where religion intersects with abortion, in addition to implications of the draft opinion for gay marriage and other rights.
