Anti-LGBTQ+ Michigan state Rep. Josh Schriver (R) fled reporters on Tuesday after he made a brief press statement explaining his non-binding resolution telling the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn same-sex marriage rights. Gay state Sen. Jeremy Moss (D) sat in front of Schriver during his statement and, as Schriver fled reporters calling after him, Moss addressed the media while calling Schriver’s statement “bufoonish.”

Schriver began his five-minute press conference by saying, “I won’t be taking any questions afterwards.” He then claimed that the court’s 2015 same-sex marriage decision “defaced the definition of marriage, undermined our God given rights, increased persecution of Christians and confused the American family structure.” He also said same-sex marriage “undermines the legal and moral foundation of this republic,” even though early U.S. marriage laws allowed for children as young as 12 years old to marry adults.

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He then claimed the court’s decision “deprived children of a fundamental right to be born and raised by a mother and a father,” though over 23 million children in the U.S. live in a single-parent families. He also claimed, without evidence, that children raised in same-sex families face greater developmental delays and challenges with education, employment, self sufficiency. (Numerous studies refute this.)

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Schriver said the court’s decision “has widened a portal where where gays, queers, transsexuals, polygamists, minor attracted persons and other perverts advance attacks on our children,” echoing decades-old attacks demonizing LGBTQ+ people as pedophiles. As proof of same-sex marriage’s harm on Christians, Schriver then noted that the state’s lesbian Attorney General Dana Nessel prosecuted a Christian adoption agency and wedding venue for refusing to serve same-sex couples — both had allegedly violated the state’s non-discrimination laws.

Schriver then declared, “Now is the time to reassert the sovereignty of Christ as our King. Now is the time to restore the authority of God and submit our will to he who knows what’s best.” He then fled the room as reporters called his name.

That’s when gay state Sen. Jeremy Moss (D) walked to the lectern and told reporters, “This was just as buffoonish as I expected it to be,” calling Schriver’s resolution “another hateful and harmful attack against the LGBTQ community” that “has fallen flat with people in the state of Michigan.”

“People respect their LGBTQ neighbors, their LGBTQ family members,” Moss said. “I don’t think there’s a lot of people sitting at their kitchen table thinking about their neighbors’ marriage and how that poses a problem to the to the well-beings of their futures and their families.”

“These marriages have been the law of the land for 10 years,” Moss continued. “They contribute to family security. They contribute to economic security for people here in the state of Michigan. And you know, we have real problems facing Michiganders.”

He then noted that LGBTQ+ parents are more likely to take in vulnerable children who “are kind of lost” in the state foster care system and “looking for a loving family.”

Last year, Schriver said that gay marriage should be “illegal again,” adding, “This is not remotely controversial, nor extreme.” He has admitted that he and other Republicans would like to ban gender-affirming care for adults, In February 2024, he was stripped of his office staff, budget, and committee assignments after sharing a social media post pushing a racist and antisemitic conspiracy theory.

During the 2024 Democratic National Convention, the state’s lesbian Attorney General Dana Nessel lifted her arm and told Republicans seeking to overturn same-sex marriage rights, “You can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hand!” In response to Schriver’s resolution, she posted a picture of a woman with a wedding ring and the words “Come and get it.”

Michigan Democrats have been pursuing a bill that would enshrine same-sex marriage in the state’s constitution. In 1995, the state’s legislature passed a law banning-same sex marriage. In 2004, Michigan voters approved a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. However, in 2015, a federal judge ruled that the state’s bans were unconstitutional.

Despite Schriver’s claims about the lack of a constitutional basis for same-sex marriage, pro-marriage lawyers and judges argued that the Constitution’s equal protection and due process provisions require the government to treat all individuals equally under the law unless there’s a compelling government interest or widespread social benefit to doing otherwise.

The lawyers who successfully litigated against same-sex marriage bans argued that the bans harm same-sex families, their children as well as companies seeking to retain LGBTQ+ employees. They also argued that the bans further no compelling or proven social interests since same-sex families are capable of contributing positively to society. Opponents of same-sex marriage have primarily argued that the unions force Christians to recognize marriages that go against their own religious beliefs.

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