Jim Obergefell is the named plaintiff from the landmark United States Supreme Court marriage equality case, Obergefell v. Hodges. Following the decision on June 26th, 2016, Jim embraced a new career as an LGBTQ+ activist. Merging a love of wine with the fight for equality, Jim co-founded Equality Vines, the world’s first cause-based wine label, to support organizations devoted to civil rights and equality for all. Jim also co-authored the book “Love Wins” with pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist Debbie Cenziper.

Growing up, Jim never believed one person could make a difference. When his husband John was diagnosed with ALS, Jim began to fight for the right to have his marriage recognized federally. He became proof that one person, or one dedicated group of people, can make a difference.

What Brett asks:

• [02:53] How were you raised and how did your early family influence you?
• [06:52] How was your father able to accept you so quickly despite conditioning?
• [09:00] What was standing in the way for you coming out?
• [12:17] What did you learn from the AIDS crisis in hindsight, and how does it apply to today?
• [15:52] Can you elaborate on your experience as a teacher and in grad school?
• [20:16] Did you go on continuing your career in education?
• [23:04] Tell us about your relationship with John and how that led to the case.
• [27:20] What was it that held you back from being an activist from the beginning, and how did you start to get more active?
• [39:24] What was it like for you to be in this fight?
• [41:55] What was the greatest challenge in getting to the ultimate decision of the case?
• [46:34] What was the feeling of winning like?
• [55:48] With what’s going on in the world, what do you believe we have to do to get to a place of being truly one?
• [01:00:37] How are you using wine to help fight these fights?

To learn more about intentional living, and for the complete show notes, visit: gravityproject.com

Resources:

• equalitywines.com
• Read: "Love Wins"
• Instagram: instagram.com/jimobergefell
• Twitter: twitter.com/jimobergefell

Gravity is a production of Crate Media