Our commission honors Ohio Civil Rights activist Jim Obergefell. In 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled in support of marriage equality in Obergefell vs Hodges. Originating in Ohio in 2013 as Obergefell vs (Gov.) Kasich, this landmark case and ruling declared across the country that two people of the same gender could marry. In celebration of such monumental queer, American and Ohio history, we are commissioning an original piece of music dedicated to the couple at the center of this case, Jim Obergefell and his late partner John Arthur.