Michigan Republican calls for making gay marriage illegal again

On Monday, Michigan state Rep. Josh Schriver (R-Oxford) made an X post advocating to make gay marriage illegal again, falsely claiming it to be an uncontroversial stance.

Schriver’s post went viral when he made the claim that his position on the issue is “not remotely controversial, nor extreme.”

Make gay marriage illegal again.

This is not remotely controversial, nor extreme.

— Rep. Josh Schriver (@JoshuaSchriver) December 2, 2024

Schriver did not immediately respond to an email request to comment on his post and add more context to his gay marriage stance. The Michigan lawmaker did make a second post on Monday, sharing a clip from 2004 of former President Barack Obama saying that marriage is between a man and a woman. The statement was made while Obama was running for senator for Illinois and prior to him shifting his stance on the issue during his first term as president.

Schriver also contended that America only accepted gay marriage after it was “thrusted into her by a perverted Supreme Court ruling.” A Gallup poll showed that a majority of Americans supported legal gay marriage in 2011, and over 70% do now.

Same-sex marriage was made a constitutional right nationwide in the 2015 Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, where Justices Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia issued dissenting opinions. Thomas, Roberts and Alito later overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022 in the Dobbs v. Jackson decision. In his concurring opinion for Dobbs, Thomas suggested that the court should reconsider the same-sex marriage precedent set in the Obergefell case.

In 2022, while Democrats controlled the presidency, Senate and House of Representatives, the Respect for Marriage Act was signed into law. The bill enshrined the rights to same-sex and interracial marriages into law. Thirty-six Republicans in the Senate and 169 Republicans in Congress voted against the bill. A Grinnell College poll from 2022 suggested that 74% of Americans support same-sex marriage.

Schriver has served in the Michigan House of Representatives since 2023, and he has made controversial statements on social issues in the past. Last year, he was one of five Republicans to vote against a bill criminalizing child marriage, and he voted against closing a marital rape loophole that same year. In February, Schriver faced backlash for calling for the ban of birth control. Schriver was also stripped of his committee assignments and staff in February after he shared posts promoting the Great Replacement Theory, a discriminatory belief that there is a global effort to diminish the influence of white people in society.