In recent months, the United States has witnessed a surge in efforts by far-right groups to challenge rights many assumed were settled, particularly those relating to LGBTQ equality. Central to this renewed campaign is the attempt to dismantle marriage equality – a right that was only enshrined nationwide in the US in 2015. While many in Britain may look across the Atlantic and dismiss such developments as uniquely American, the uncomfortable truth is that similar forces and strategies are at work within the United Kingdom. To believe that LGBTQ rights here are secure is to ignore the mounting evidence of regression.

The US Supreme Court is now considering whether to hear a case that seeks to overturn its landmark 2015 ruling on same-sex marriage. Even if the Court declines, the very fact that the issue is being reopened illustrates the determination of the religious right to wage long battles through the courts. This method – often described as “strategic litigation” – has been used to erode rights incrementally, case by case.

The petitioner in this instance is Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who made headlines in 2015 when she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, claiming that her religious beliefs forbade her from doing so. Her lawyer, Mat Staver, chairs Liberty Counsel, an organization designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBTQ hate group. The group specializes in pushing evangelical Christian values into legal frameworks, echoing tactics that helped overturn abortion rights in 2022.

Warnings from prominent figures such as Hillary Clinton suggest that it is only a matter of time before marriage equality is struck down in the US Whether or not this particular case succeeds, it fits into a larger pattern of relentless litigation aimed at reshaping the law in line with conservative religious ideology.

Britain has long projected itself as a leader in the global movement for LGBTQ equality. A decade ago, the UK topped ILGA-Europe’s ranking of European countries on LGBTQ rights. Today, it has fallen to 22nd place, a

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