Gay rights groups on Friday cheered a
federal judge's ruling striking down Virginia's ban on gay marriage.
The judge stayed her ruling ruling
pending an appeal.
(Related: Judge
strikes down Virginia's ban on gay marriage.)
The American Foundation for Equal
Rights (AFER) represented the two plaintiff couples in the case. Ted
Olson of Dunn & Crutcher LLP and David Boies of Boies, Schiller &
Flexner LLP argued the case.
“Through its decision today, the
court has upheld the principles of equality upon which this nation
was founded,” said Olson in a statement. “Virginia's prohibition
on marriage for same-sex couples relegates gay and lesbian Virginians
to second-class status. Laws excluding gay men and lesbians from
marriage violate personal freedom, are an unnecessary government
intrusion, and cause serious harm. That type of law cannot stand.”
“The United States Supreme Court has
stated fourteen times that the freedom to marry is one of the most
fundamental rights – if not the most fundamental right – of all
Americans,” said Boies. “The denial of that fundamental freedom
to marry the person you love and be treated with equal dignity and
respect seriously harms gay and lesbian Americans and the children
they are raising.”
Evan Wolfson, president and CEO of
Freedom to Marry, said the ruling adds to the “momentum for
marriage.”
“The bipartisan momentum for marriage
is building at an unprecedented speed,” Wolfson said. “In just
the past several weeks, federal judges in Utah, Oklahoma, and
Kentucky; the Attorney Generals of Virginia and Nevada; the Governor
of Nevada, and now a federal judge in Virginia have all said that
marriage discrimination against loving and committed gay couples is
indefensible under our Constitution. There has been a fundamental
shift in the legal landscape. America is ready for the freedom to
marry and those couples in Virginia, on the eve of Valentine's Day,
are ready to marry.”
Chad Griffin, president of the Human
Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT rights advocate,
echoed a similar sentiment.
“Yet another court has upheld the
fundamental idea that gay and lesbian Americans are entitled to full
equality under the law,” Griffin said in a blog post. “Nearly
fifty years ago, another Virginia case struck down bans on
interracial marriage across the country, and now this commonwealth
brings renewed hope for an end to irrational barriers to marriage for
loving and committed couples across the country.”
“Following recent decisions in Utah,
Oklahoma, Ohio and Kentucky this Virginia ruling proves that marriage
equality is once again on the fast track to the United States Supreme
Court. From the South to the Midwest, this historic progress sends a
message that no American should have to wait for equality, no matter
where they live.”
“Right now this nation is divided
into two Americas – one where full legal equality is nearly a
reality, and the other where even the most basic protections of the
law are nonexistent for loving gay and lesbian couples. We cannot
and will not tolerate that patchwork of discrimination, and we won't
stop fighting until fairness and dignity reaches each and every
American in all 50 states.”