Indiana Same-Sex Marriage Ban: Lawsuit From Gay Couple Challenges Law
An Indiana same-sex marriage ban is being challenged by another lawsuit from a gay couple who claims the law violates their rights under the United States Constitution.
In a related report by The Inquisitr, Mitt Romney says the effects of gay marriage on American society will take a “long, long time” to be known.
Last month, the state of Virginia also struck down a law similar to the Indiana same-sex marriage ban. The reason the LGBT community is serving so many lawsuits in court recently is because of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June 2013 that requires the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages in regards to benefits and taxes.
But the Defense Of Marriage Act is still intact in some parts even after the Supreme Court decision because the court case that started the whole thing did not address DOMA as a whole. Although the judges struck down Section 3 of DOMA, which covered the Federal government’s role in relation to same-sex couples, it did not directly address Section 2, which allows states to to refuse to recognize those marriages.
This means each state has to decide what to do about gay marriage, and a number of lawsuits have been filed all over the nation. Judges have been striking down the bans as unconstitutional, but in the case of Utah and Texas the rulings were put on hold until an appeal could be made in court. As of now, 30 out of 50 states still have a gay marriage ban, and just this week lawsuits were filed in both Florida and Arizona.
In the case of this new lawsuit against the Indiana same-sex marriage ban, the plaintiffs are a widow whose lesbian partner is not recognized by the state. There are also several gay couples involved in the lawsuit who desired to be married within Indiana but cannot due to the existing law. The lawsuit also challenges how children of homosexual couples do not receive the same legal protections as children from heterosexual families. Indiana’s state attorney general has already said he will defend the Indiana same-sex marriage ban.
