News (USA)

N.C. GOP lawmakers ask Supreme Court to reinstate gay marriage ban

N.C. GOP lawmakers ask Supreme Court to reinstate gay marriage ban

North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger and former state House leader and newly-seated U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to quickly hear their appeal seeking to reverse lower-court rulings that legalized gay marriage in the state.

North-CarolinaThe lawmakers are asking the high court to hear their case ahead of a ruling by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, claiming the appeals court has already erred in its decision against Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage by ignoring the 1972 decision of Baker v. Nelson, a decades-old ruling in Minnesota that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear.

“The current push to redefine marriage to encompass same-sex relationships would remove several of the other key components of the institution of marriage,” the brief states. “It would remove biological complementarity, therefore depriving a significant number of children of being raised by both of their biological parents and removing them from a structured household with both masculine and feminine influences.”

Federal judges in Greensboro and Asheville ruled in October that the state constitution’s amendment banning gay marriage was unconstitutional.

The rulings came after the Supreme Court refused to hear a case that overturned Virginia’s similar ban.

Berger and Tillis were allowed by the Greensboro federal judge to intervene after Attorney General Roy Cooper said all potential legal defenses are exhausted.

One of the attorneys representing the lawmakers is John Eastman, board chair of the National Organization for Marriage.

Document courtesy Equality Case Files. [ Full screen ]

Don't forget to share:

Support vital LGBTQ+ journalism

Reader contributions help keep LGBTQ Nation free, so that queer people get the news they need, with stories that mainstream media often leaves out. Can you contribute today?

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated

New poll shows 76 percent support for same-sex marriage in Ireland

Previous article

Former ‘ex-gay poster boy,’ Exodus VP Randy Thomas comes out as gay

Next article