5 days and counting

We are now five days away from when the U.S. Supreme Court hears the case from Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Michigan on same-sex marriages.

From Kentucky, we have Bourke v. Beshear and Love v. Beshear. When the ourke case was filed on July 26, 2013, there was no way to know that this would be one of the cases to go to the Supreme Court, and help the entire country decide once and for all if same-sex marriage is a fundamental right, just like opposite gender marriage is. Opposite sex marriage was determined to be a fundamental right in Loving v. Virginia, when the Supreme Court ruled that you had a fundamental right to marry someone regardless of their race. For the attorneys involved in these cases, this is a logical extension of that ruling, and it is just the right thing to do.

Across the 6 couples in the Kentucky cases, you have the entire spectrum, from the younger couple who were arrested in a peaceful protest when they tried to get a marriage license (and who have been together 8 years) to the oldest couple who have been together 43 years (and who were married in Iowa and spent most of their lives facing the possibility of being arrested just for being gay) and everything in between. The 6 couples have, together, 140 years in committed relationships. Their stories are impressive and move people every time they are told. No one can listen to these people and not see that there is something wrong with the state saying their relationships aren’t valid, when opposite gender people can get married and divorced as many times and as often as they want.

As we get closer to the Supreme Court hearing these cases, and a decision in June of this year, you will see more and more of the clients in the news. Listen to their stories, as they are the best people to tell them, and you will see that there is no way to the Supreme Court can invalidate their relationships.

As a side note, Freedom to Marry sent a book of thank you notes from all over the country, with people thanking all of us for working on the cases. It is very moving and shows exactly how far reaching these Kentucky cases are.