U.S.
Georgia same-sex marriage ban challenged
Gay rights group Lambda Legal on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging Georgia's ban on same-sex marriage. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on behalf of a widow and three same-sex couples. The widow, who married her spouse in New York last year, is seeking to have her name listed on her spouse's death certificate.
The other couples are seeking the right to marry in Georgia. According to Lambda Legal attorney Tara Borelli, "Georgians believe in the Southern values of love, honor and family, but as long as the State of Georgia continues to bar same-sex couples from marriage, it devalues these families and reinforces unfairness and discrimination." Plaintiffs are seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. Georgia's same-sex marriage ban was previously upheld by the state's supreme court in 2006.
Same-sex marriage is one of the most hotly debated topics in the legal community today. Earlier this month Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring filed an appellate brief in support of a district court's ruling that the state's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. Also in April a federal judge granted an emergency request to force Indiana to recognize an out-of-state same-sex marriage on a death certificate. One day earlier the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a federal lawsuit challenging North Carolina's ban on same-sex marriages.
(Published by Jurist – April 22, 2014)