The MAGA-captured U.S. Supreme Court is mounting attacks on LGBTQ+ Americans. President Biden just announced his court reform proposal to help stop them. We know from experience the urgency to get this done.  

For over seven decades, Michele’s family owned small businesses in Phoenix, from Central to Seventh Street. Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that businesses could discriminate against LGBTQ+ patrons. 

For more than three decades, Michael welcomed LGBTQ+ Arizonans to his community safe space, the lounge and dance floor at BS West in Scottsdale. This June, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that weapons of war, with the capabilities of the assault-style rifle used in the attack at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub, should be allowed back into our communities.

In the years since former President Trump appointed his third Supreme Court justice and locked in the court’s MAGA supermajority, these justices have turned back the clocks on our freedoms. And we have already seen their playbook to further unleash anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination upon our communities and those who love us. We’ve read the justices’ paper trail, on their march to dismantle marriage equality. We know the painful traumas we have already endured for simply being ourselves are just previews for what’s ahead if this court remains unchecked.  

This is particularly dangerous in Arizona where our LGBTQ+ community lacks statewide protections. For more than 20 years, efforts to include sexual orientation and gender identity among Arizona’s protected classes have died in the state Legislature. Instead of advancing legislation to protect LGBTQ+ Arizonans, our Legislature has repeatedly sent discriminatory bills to the governor’s desk, despite Gov. Katie Hobbs’ steadfast commitment to veto each one. 

Instead of serving as the last line of defense against the Supreme Court’s attacks, Arizona’s MAGA-loyal state justices and lawmakers have eagerly run through the doors opened by their allies on the high court. They introduced countless voter suppression bills after the court weakened voting rights. They primed a 15-week abortion ban and revived a draconian 1864-era law to go into effect after the Supreme Court overturned abortion rights. And with their record on LGBTQ+ rights, we know what to expect from our legislators following a potential future Supreme Court ruling that upends same-sex marriage or gender affirming care — causing unbelievable harm to families and creating reckless instability for our state’s children.

The Supreme Court’s future decisions and our lawmakers’ future responses could be the difference between a child getting access to a local preschool, receiving critical medical treatment, finding a loving home, and simply living their life — as these policies and the cruelty behind them have taken a fatal toll on too many in our community. 

For all of these reasons, we have lived in fear.  

Today, though, we are full of hope. The president’s Supreme Court reform proposal — which includes term limits, an enforceable ethics code, and an amendment to limit broad constitutional immunity — reminds us there is a path forward. This is a crucial step and centering of the urgency for bold action to fix the court, restore our freedoms, renew Americans’ faith in our judiciary, and put us back on the path toward progress. 

We also have hope because we, the people, can help pave that path. This Supreme Court and its harm is not inevitable. It is up to the leaders we choose to represent us, including the White House, Congress, and our state Legislature to ensure that the march toward freedom, equality and equity will continue on, and not be turned back by a small group of individuals.

We are now asking those elected representatives to fight for us by heeding the president’s call to reform the Supreme Court.

We know what happens when that call goes unanswered. We have lived it. And we cannot go back to where we were, when we have come so far to reach where we are.

Michele White is the executive director of Greater Phoenix Equality Chamber of Commerce and Michael Fornelli is a community leader in Phoenix and owner of an LGBTQ+ safe space business for 30+ years.