Political Notes: With San Francisco event, Obergefell kicks off Ohio statehouse bid fundraising
With an event this week in San Francisco's LGBTQ Castro district, Jim Obergefell is kicking off his efforts to raise funds for his Ohio statehouse bid this year.
The Buckeye State native has long had ties to the Bay Area due to his involvement in a wine label that has a downtown tasting room in the LGBTQ vacation destination of Guerneville.Obergefell gained international notoriety as the lead plaintiff in the 2015 U.S.
Supreme Court case that established marriage equality in all 50 states. He had married two years earlier his late partner, John Arthur, dying at the time from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, on a Maryland airport tarmac.Three months after they wed, Arthur died and, because Ohio didn't recognize the couple's marriage, Obergefell sued the state in federal court.
It led to the landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.Later that year Obergefell teamed up with Elissa Nauful and Matt Grove, who are both straight, to launch Equality Wines LLC.
