President Donald Trump spoke at the
Road to Majority conference on Wednesday, the fourth anniversary of
the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision.
In the 2015 ruling, the high court
found that gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to
marry, striking down state laws and constitutional amendments
defining marriage as a heterosexual union.
At the conference hosted by the Faith &
Freedom Coalition, Trump talked about his efforts to protect
“religious freedom,” a vague term that can include opposition to
LGBT rights. The Faith & Freedom Coalition was founded by Ralph
Reed, who once compared the Obergefell ruling to the 1857 Dred
Scott decision that defined slaves as property.
“When I asked for your support in
2016, Americans of faith were under assault,” Trump said. “But
that shameful attempt to suppress religious believers ended the day I
took the oath of office.”
“My administration has taken historic
action to protect religious liberty,” he
added, pointing to expanded conscience rights policies that
critics have called anti-LGBT. “We're preserving our country's
vital tradition of faith-based adoption.”
Trump also touted his picks to the U.S.
Supreme Court: Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
(Related: In
tweet, Trump recognizes June as LGBT Pride month.)
Wednesday was also the anniversary of
three additional high court rulings. The Supreme Court struck down
the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California's Proposition 8 on
June 26, 2013. Wednesday also marked the 16th anniversary
of Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down state laws that
prohibited sex between two people of the same gender.