Jim Obergefell in Dallas

Jim Obergefell, the named plaintiff in the marriage equality case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 26, was in Dallas on Monday, June 29, with Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin.
At a press conference in downtown Dallas, Griffin said they had come to Texas to protest Attorney General Ken Paxton “encouraging obstruction and delay.”
Obergefell told his story of having to fly to Maryland from Ohio in order to marry his husband who was dying from ALS. After a ceremony in the plane, parked on the tarmac at a Baltimore airport, they were married for three months and 11 days. But they were together 20 years.
While Griffin thanked Obergefell for putting his life on hold for two years to fight the case that won marriage equality for the country, Obergefell said he was fighting to make sure his husband’s life was respected.
He repeated the story at a reception later that evening at the Round-Up Saloon.
“When John died, he deserved to have his last record say I was his surviving spouse,” Obergefell told a packed house at the Round-Up. “What better way to love him and respect him than to stand up to that bully attorney general.”
He was referring to Ohio’s attorney general but then called Paxton the same sort of bully.
“I didn’t put my life on hold for two years,” he said. “My life began as I fought for my husband and my community.”
He said that today his life is filled with family and friends from coast to coast and said his husband would be proud of him.
“Keep being pissed off and make your attorney general represent all of us,” he said.