Three West Virginia couples are challenging the constitutionality
of the state's gay marriage ban.
New York-based Lambda Legal is representing 3 gay couples and
the child of one couple.
In its complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in
Huntington, Lambda Legal declared that West Virginia's law limiting
marriage to heterosexual couples violates the 14th
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“The right to marry the person of one's choice, and to direct
the course of one's life in this intimate realm without undue
government interference is one of the fundamental liberty interests
protected for all by the Due Process Clause of the United States
Constitution,” the group said in its filing. “The State's
exclusion of plaintiff couples and other same-sex couples from
marriage violates their fundamental right to marry.”
Nancy Michael, 43, and Jane Fenton, 45, are one of the plaintiff
couples, along with their six-year-old son Drew.
“We have done everything we can to protect and take
responsibility for family, but we worry all the time that it isn't
enough,” Michael told reporters during a press conference. “We
need the protection that marriage affords.”
“It is not fair that my two mommies cannot get married,” Drew
said of his parents who have been together 16 years.