Two gay couples have joined a lawsuit
which challenges New Mexico's laws limiting marriage to heterosexual
couples.
Longtime partners A.D. Joplin and Greg
Gomez and Monica Leaming and Cecilia Taulbee became plaintiffs last
week in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of New
Mexico (ACLU-NM) on behalf of two gay couples in March.
“With this lawsuit, we are trying to
have the courts confirm [that] the ability for same-sex couples to
marry is already a protected right in New Mexico,” Micah McCoy,
communications director for ACLU-NM, told Farmington daily The
Daily Times.
New Mexico is the only state in the
country that neither recognizes nor prohibits the recognition of gay
couples. The New Mexico Constitution's definition of marriage makes
no mention of gender. However, the state's application for a
marriage license includes spaces to list the bride and the groom,
terms New Mexico Attorney General Gary King has said are “gender
specific.”
Leaming, 40, and Taulbee, 51, have been
together for 15 years.
“I'm not in a fight, I just want to
show everyone that I love Cecilia,” Leaming said.
The move comes after another gay couple
filed a separate lawsuit last week.
(Related: Second
New Mexico lawsuit seeks right to marry for gay couples.)