Marriage – Again!

“Live and let live. It is very simple.” That’s the position of former Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican from Wyoming, and that’s what he says in a television ad supporting marriage equality. The ad started at the same time as the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals began hearing oral arguments about Utah’s same-sex marriage ban. Simpson also led a group of prominent “Western conservatives, moderates and libertarians who embrace the individual freedoms protected by our Constitution” in a brief arguing that bans on same-sex marriage should be struck down.

A three-judge panel from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Utah’s Kitchen vs. Herbert last Thursday. This is the first case in which a state defends its marriage equality ban at the federal appellate level. Next Thursday, a panel from the same appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments over Oklahoma’s ban on same-sex marriage. Each one of the panels consists of two Republican and one Democratic appointments. Jerome A. Holmes, appointed by George W. Bush, had opposed staying the Utah’s trial court’s ruling, allowing over 1,000 LGBT couples to get married before the Supreme Court stayed the decision.  Whichever way the panels rule, it will become law in five more states—Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming—unless it is stayed again. The sixth state in the court’s jurisdiction, New Mexico, has already legalized marriage equality. Lawyers arguing against marriage equality are using the argument of optimal childrearing for the marriage model of one man and woman, an argument that was recently rejected in Michigan.

One lesbian couple in Indiana is now recognized as legally married, tragically because one of them is dying. Amy Sandler and Niki Quasney, married last year in Massachusetts and raising two children, have been together for 13 years. The ruling mirrors those of a federal judge in Ohio which ordered that the state recognized same-sex marriages for death certificates. In Illinois, couples were permitted to marry before the start of marriage equality on June 1 if one of them was terminally ill.

The Nevada GOP has officially removed its objection to marriage equality. The state had refused to defend its constitutional amendment banning marriage equality.

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Black has formally ruled that Ohio must recognize same sex marriages performed in other states. He has a placed a hold on his own ruling for the time being, anticipating an appeal by the state.

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