A new investigation has linked funding from the family behind Hobby Lobby to one of the leading organizations working to overturn marriage equality in the United States. According to reporting, The Servant Foundation—a Christian nonprofit funded by Hobby Lobby founder David Green and his family—donated $300,000 to Them Before Us, one of the organizations behind the “Greater Than” campaign. The campaign is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.  

The “Greater Than” campaign, launched earlier this year by dozens of organizations opposed to LGBTQ+ rights, argues that marriage should be legally limited to one man and one woman and has made overturning marriage equality one of its central goals.  

This is not the first time Hobby Lobby’s leadership has been involved in high-profile legal and political battles centered on religion and public policy. The company previously drew national attention following its successful 2014 Supreme Court challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, arguing that closely held businesses could assert certain religious objections.  

For many LGBTQ+ people, however, this latest reporting feels especially personal.

Marriage equality is more than a legal question. It represents the ability to build a family, make medical decisions for a spouse, receive equal legal recognition, and publicly commit to the person you love with the same dignity afforded to everyone else.

While Hobby Lobby itself has not announced a corporate campaign to overturn Obergefell, the reported financial support from its founder’s philanthropic network has renewed calls from some consumers to reconsider where they shop and how they spend their money.  

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From the Harbor

For many of us, stories like this can feel exhausting.

It’s easy to wonder why, after years of progress, our relationships continue to be debated as though they’re ideas instead of lives.

But headlines only tell us what is happening today. They don’t tell us everything that has already been overcome.

Marriage equality exists today because countless LGBTQ+ people chose honesty over fear, community over isolation, and hope over despair. Whatever the future holds, that history cannot be erased.

Keep looking toward the horizon.

Even when storms gather, the horizon reminds us that the story isn’t finished.