A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday on
behalf of six gay and lesbian couples challenges the
constitutionality of Georgia's ban on gay marriage.
The lawsuit was announced at a press
conference organized by Lambda Legal in Atlanta.
The Georgia Supreme Court in 2006 ruled
valid the 2004 public vote which amended the Georgia Constitution to
recognize only the union of a man and a woman as marriage and
prohibit the state from recognizing the legal marriages of gay
couples.
Christopher Inniss, 39, and Shelton
Stroman, 42, of Snellville, an Atlanta suburb, are the lead
plaintiffs in the case. The men have been together 13 years and are
raising their 9-year-old adopted son, Jonathan.
“We just want to make sure that other
families like ours are treated just like everyone else's family,”
Stroman
told the AP. “It's really hurtful and offensive that the state
of Georgia is refusing to treat our families fairly.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign
(HRC), only four states remain without an active lawsuit challenging
marriage equality bans: Alaska, Montana, North Dakota and South
Dakota.
(Read
the complaint, provided by Equality
Case Files.)