CatholicVote has joined a nationwide coalition backing the newly launched “Greater Than” campaign, a coordinated effort seeking to challenge the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling and reframe the national debate over marriage and family policy around children’s rights. 

The campaign, launched Jan. 28, includes dozens of state and national organizers and is led by Them Before Us — a child-advocacy group that argues public policy should prioritize children’s rights to both a mother and a father. Organizers say the coalition brings together family-policy groups, Christian ministries, and conservative media figures under the shared goal of reversing the legal and cultural consequences of Obergefell, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. 

Campaign leaders argue the ruling — which framed same-sex marriage as a matter of adult “equality” and required extending to same-sex couples the same benefits associated with marriage — reshaped family law in ways that prioritize adult desires over children’s developmental and emotional needs. 

“Children are greater than equal, and it’s time we fought for their rights,” several pro-family activists said in a campaign launch video shared online. 

Kelsey Reinhardt, president and CEO of CatholicVote, said the campaign reflects a growing recognition that Obergefell has left harmful consequences for families, children, and religious liberty.

“As Catholics, we affirm the inalienable dignity of every human person, without exclusion,” Reinhardt said. “As Americans, we firmly defend individual rights and the freedom to live without fear or harassment. But those principles do not require us to deny reality or to remain silent when a legal experiment has failed.”

“When Obergefell was decided, Americans were told that redefining marriage was simply about being ‘left alone,’” she added. “That promise has proven tragically false. Instead, the ruling has unleashed growing coercion: pressure on families, bullying in schools, threats to religious liberty, and a relentless demand that Americans not only tolerate, but publicly affirm and promote a vision of sexuality and marriage that many know to be harmful.”

Marriage is not the Supreme Court’s to define, Reinhardt said, and the damage done by the ruling is no longer theoretical but visible in society. 

“The time has come to tell the truth, revisit this ruling, and restore the freedom of Americans to uphold marriage as the union of one man and one woman without fear of punishment or exclusion,” she concluded. “‘Greater Than’ is about law, yes, but even more about reality, freedom, and the courage to correct a profound national mistake.”

The coalition outlines a three-part strategy: reframing marriage policy around the parent-child relationship; shaping public opinion by emphasizing the harmful effects of same-sex marriage and broader family breakdown on children; and mobilizing Christian churches to advocate for legal change.

Organizers emphasized that overturning Obergefell would not dissolve existing same-sex marriages or invalidate settled parental determinations. They also noted that the “Respect for Marriage Act,” signed into law in 2024 by former President Joe Biden, requires states to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere but does not require them to issue marriage licenses. 

If the Supreme Court were to overturn Obergefell, the group argued, the constitutional foundation for mandatory nationwide recognition of same-sex marriage would be significantly weakened.

Katy Faust, founder and president of Them Before Us, framed the coalition’s effort as a response to the tangible harm to children caused by the redefinition of marriage. 

“The legal result of so-called adult equality has been the commodification of children,” Faust said in the campaign’s press release emailed to CatholicVote. “Ask the children who have been starved of maternal or paternal love, acquired by predators, mass produced, trafficked across borders, struggling with identity confusion, or subjected to risky households if they feel ‘equal’ now.” 

“We will retake marriage for the sake of these children,” Faust said in the release, “whose basic needs should never have been made less than in the eyes of the law.”