Cincinnati city council members voted unanimously to give Mercer Street a gay update. They’ve given it the honorary name “John Arthur & Jim Obergefell Way.”
Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the groundbreaking marriage equality Supreme Court case, was overcome with emotion when he found out. His husband’s impending death sparked the lawsuit. The two men married on a plane at the Baltimore airport shortly before Arthur died from ALS because same-sex marriages were illegal in Ohio at the time.
“John always wanted to leave a mark on Cincinnati,” Obergefell told WCPO, the city’s ABC station. “That was something he really wanted to do. He didn’t have that chance, but now he does. I’m incredibly grateful and I know John would be as well.”
The two men lived on Mercer Street when Arthur passed away.
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