A federal judge on Wednesday declared
invalid Kentucky's ban on recognizing the out-of-state marriages of
gay and lesbian couples.
In
his 23-page ruling, U.S. District Judge John C. Heyburn II
declared that the laws “violate the Equal Protection Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
While “religious beliefs … are
vital to the fabric of society … assigning a religious or
traditional rationale for a law does not make it constitutional when
that law discriminates against a class of people without other
reasons,” Heyburn wrote. “[I]t is clear that Kentucky's laws
treat gay and lesbian persons differently in a way that demeans
them.”
Heyburn rejected arguments from
conservatives groups who argued that the ban was needed to protect
heterosexual marriages.
“[N]o one has offered any evidence
that recognizing same-sex marriages will harm opposite-sex
marriages,” he wrote.
Evan Wolfson, founder and president of
Freedom to Marry, applauded the ruling.
“Today a Republican-appointed federal
judge in Kentucky held – as did judges in Utah and Oklahoma weeks
ago and as did the U.S. Supreme Court last year – that there is
simply no legitimate justification for denying equal protection to
same-sex couples, echoing the majority of Americans who support the
freedom to marry, including a growing number of conservatives. It is
wrong for the government to deny same-sex couples the freedom to
marry the person they love; a freedom that is part of every
American's liberty and pursuit of happiness. With one of the many
cases across the country potentially making it to the Supreme Court
as soon as 2015, we must continue to make the case across the country
that America – all of America – is ready for the freedom to
marry.”
Four gay and lesbian couples filed the
lawsuit soon after the Supreme Court eviscerated the heart of the
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in June. The high court's majority
ruled unconstitutional DOMA's provision prohibiting federal agencies
from recognizing the legal marriages of gay couples. Its decision
also chided lawmakers for legalizing discrimination.
Plaintiff couple Gregory Bourke and
Michael Deleon from Louisville, both 55, married in Canada in 2004.
“We are victims of discrimination,
and that's what the lawsuit is about,” Deleon, a database
administrator, told The
Courier-Journal. “Not
being treated equally under the law.”