I think the point is that because in the US States are allowed to make their own laws, the history shows that it is not true to claim that
It was less than a decade ago that gays and transsexuals had no rights at all -homosexuality as far as I know, has never been illegal in the USA, but Sodomy has been, and it was the law against Sodomy that changed when the state of Wisconsin changed its definition to allow 'consensual sodomy' in 1961, a law enacted in 1962. Some states followed Wisconsin's model while others moderated the law to lessen the punishment for Sodomy, but it was not until
Lawrence -v- Texas in 2003 that the Supreme Court decision effectively made the repeal of sodomy laws universal throughout the USA, which may fall in line with the general point you made, but it was hardly a matter of negotiation, rather the Supreme Court recognizing that Sodomy laws were not applicable to American society in the 21st century.
A similar problem arises with the case of same-sex marriage because as far as I am aware, it was not illegal in US law until 1973 when a State -Maryland- actually defined marriage in law as the union of a man and a woman, rather than of people of the same sex, and did so because two men had applied for a marriage license in 1970 which was rejected by the State, with the Supreme Court later declining to hear the case
for want of a substantial federal question. Other states then followed the Maryland example to make same-sex marriages illegal, a position the supposedly 'liberal' President Clinton agreed with, signing the
Defence of Marriage Act in
1996.
On the other hand, in the same year the senior Judge in Hawaii ruled that the State had no right to deprive same-sex couples the right to marry, while in the late 1980s in San Francisco same-sex and heterosexual but non-married couples were given a form of 'spousal rights' that allowed them
to register for domestic partnerships, which granted hospital visitation rights and other benefits.
What these examples show is that the question of Constitutional Rights is one that is contested on a regular basis, and that what is illegal in 1973 can be legal in 2003. But what the transition from Gay Rights to Spousal Rights to Same-Sex Marriage Rights also shows is that however much they were, and are resisted, it is difficult in law to deny one set of Americans what the law gives to others, particularly in private matters that concern human relationships.
It is in this clash between the specific and the general that over time 'States rights' have had to concede to Federal Law, but this is clearly something some States don't like, just as southern states are using existing law to roll back civil rights legislation to suppress the Black vote, now they are fighting back on same-sex marriage and abortion, especially now they have a President who ridicules political correctness which many of his supporters blame for legal changes that give rights to Transgendered Americans as if they were not 'proper rights' at all.
Thus, when you argue:
My point is simply that it's not nearly as bad as it could be, in fact it is worse because this President has set himself up as a judicial activist who is eager to change as many laws as he can while trashing anyone who disagrees with him as a 'criminal', a 'traitor' and a 'liar'. The USA has gone from Stonewall to the Writing on the Wall, and the message is: this country belongs to us, not to you.
Some sources I used-
https://www.infoplease.com/us/gender...ement-timeline
https://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/28/u...cts/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/19/u...cts/index.html
http://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.ph...2919&p=4182201
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodomy...States#History
https://www.history.com/topics/gay-marriage
