The Club Q massacre is a painful reminder of just how vulnerable LGBT lives are in the US

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. But in 2012, Mr Biden infamously got ahead of the president when he said on Meet the Press that he was “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex marriages. The Supreme Court, meanwhile, nullified the Defence of Marriage Act in 2013 with United States v Windsor, and legalised same-sex marriage in 2015 with Obergefell v Hodges. Later, during Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator John Cornyn compared Obergefell to the notorious 1896 case Plessy v Ferguson decision, which created the “separate but equal” doctrine allowing room for racial segregation under state law. More ominously still, when the court announced its decision on Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organisation and overturned Roe v Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas included a concurring opinion that said that those two aforementioned decisions should be re-examined, along with Lawrence v Texas, which nullified anti-sodomy laws.