A federal judge on Monday ordered state
officials to recognize the recent marriage of an Ohio gay couple.
Jim Obergefell and John Arthur of
Cincinnati married last week aboard a medical transport plane parked
off a Baltimore airport runway. Arthur received a diagnosis of
amyotropic lateral sclerosis, or ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's
Disease), a neurological disease, 26 months earlier and is now
bedridden and receiving hospice care. Friends and family contributed
the $12,700 needed to charter the medically-equipped plane.
(Related: Dying
gay man's final wish: To marry his partner.)
Judge Timothy Black granted the couple
a temporary restraining order, BuzzFeed.com
reported.
“The end result here and now is that
the local Ohio Registrant of death certificates is hereby ORDERED not
to accept for recording a death certificate for John Arthur that does
not record Mr. Arthur's status at death as 'married' and James
Obergefell as his 'surviving spouse,'” Black wrote.
Black concluded that Ohio's law and a
2004 constitutional amendment, both of which limit marriage to
heterosexual couples, “likely violate the United States
Constitution.”
A spokesman for Ohio Governor John
Kasich refused to comment on the decision other than to reiterate
that “the governor believes that marriage is between a man and a
woman.”