Case in point: Society should leave “the love affairs of the community to regulate themselves, instead of trusting to legislation to regulate them.” This is not a modern-day activist cheering the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 overturning of the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional, but Woodhull in 1871. “Put a woman on trial for anything—it is considered as a legitimate part of the defense to make the most searching inquiry into her sexual morality, and the decision generally turns upon the proof advanced in this regard.” These words are not a contemporary comment on the disparaging treatment of victims of domestic violence or rape—one of the reasons 54 percent of rapes go unreported today—but rather, Tennie Claflin speaking out in 1871.If the sisters were alive today, they would find many of the same problems they railed against over a century and a half ago, sometimes on issues unheard of back then, but dovetailing with their sense of personal freedom. As soon as the Supreme Court ruled on DOMA in 2013, opponents vowed to fight state by state against further legalizing of same-sex marriage.
