A gay couple married in New York has
filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Ohio's
ban on gay marriage.
Al Cowger Jr. and Tony Wesley Jr. have
been together for 28 years and married in upstate New York in June
2012. The couple lives in Gates Mills, a suburb of Cleveland, with
their 7-year-old adopted daughter.
Because Ohio does not recognize their
out-of-state marriage, they have not been able to enroll as a family
under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and were forced to purchase three
individual policies at a higher cost.
“This is the last straw,” Cowger,
an attorney, told
the AP. “After 28 years, we're just so sick of having to jump
through hoops and get around all these restrictions, all the stuff
that comes with the prohibitions, to be treated like a family. We're
just tired of being given not even a second-class status – a
no-class status.”
This is the third lawsuit aimed at
dismantling Ohio's ban, approved by voters in 2004. The others,
however, seek to carve out exceptions to the ban, rather than topple
it.
(Related: Four
gay couples want Ohio to recognize their marriages on birth
certificates.)
(Read
the complaint.)