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Next stop for Ariz. couple who challenged gay marriage ban: visiting a wedding planner
PHOENIX — Karen Bailey and Nelda Majors were a couple for 50 years before they told friends and family about their relationship. They kept it secret to avoid the hostility that they saw lesbians and gay men endure throughout much of their lifetime. Six years after they revealed their relationship, the partners witnessed something that they never thought …
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Federal judge strikes down Arizona same-sex marriage ban
PHOENIX — Same-sex marriage has become legal in Arizona after the state’s conservative attorney general said Friday that he wouldn’t challenge a federal court decision that cleared the way for same-sex unions in the state. The announcement prompted gay couples in Phoenix to immediately begin lining up at the downtown courthouse to apply for…
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Arizona: Judge should delay gay marriage because 9th Circuit hasn’t issued mandate
PHOENIX — Lawyers for the state of Arizona agree that the state’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional because of an appeals court ruling. But attorneys for Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne urged a federal judge to delay overturning the ban because last week’s order from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is not yet final.
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Lambda Legal urges federal judge to strike down Arizona gay marriage ban
PHOENIX — Lambda Legal on Wednesday urged a federal court judge in Phoenix to issue an immediate ruling striking down Arizona’s ban on same-sex marriage. The filing follows last Tuesday’s ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals striking down gay marriage bans in Nevada and Idaho, which came just a day after the announcement…
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Marriage equality advocates urge Arizona AG to stop defending state’s ban
PHOENIX – Delivering more than 5,000 petition signatures in a little red wagon, supporters of gay marriage called Thursday for Attorney General Tom Horne to drop his defense of the state’s ban. The wagon belonged to the daughter of Phoenix couple Kevin Patterson and David Larance, plaintiffs in one of two pending lawsuits challenging the ban.
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Arizona’s same-sex marriage ban likely to fall in wake of 9th Circuit ruling
PHOENIX — The federal appeals court overseeing Arizona overturned gay marriage bans in two other states Tuesday in a decision that means same-sex marriage is virtually certain to be declared legal in Arizona soon. The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out gay marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada on constitutional grounds…
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Arizona same-sex marriage ban on thin ice as state awaits rulings in two cases
PHOENIX — Arizona’s ban on same-sex marriage appears to be on even thinner ice now that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to overturn federal courts that declared bans in five states unconstitutional. Monday’s unexpected decision not to hear appeals from Wisconsin, Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah and Virginia means Arizona’s efforts to keep …
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Federal judge orders Ariz. to recognize deceased man’s same-sex marriage
A judge handed a victory Friday to a gay man who lost his spouse to cancer last month and was denied death benefits because Arizona does not recognize same-sex marriage. Fred McQuire and George Martinez were partners of 45 years who got married in California this summer, fulfilling one of their final wishes as they both dealt with serious health issues.
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Fred and George, 45 years together: An Arizona Love Story
PHOENIX — On Friday, Lambda Legal will ask the U.S. District Court in Phoenix to order the State of Arizona to provide an accurate death certificate to Fred McQuire for his husband, George Martinez, who died on August 28. Fred, 69, and his late husband, George, 62, of Green Valley, Ariz., both veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces, met in 1969….
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Emergency motion seeks recognition of deceased man’s surviving spouse
PHOENIX — A gay rights legal advocacy group on Wednesday filed an emergency motion asking the U.S. District Court in Arizona to order the State of Arizona to provide a death certificate naming a deceased man’s spouse as his survivor. Lambda Legal filed the motion on behalf of Fred McQuire and George Martinez, a Green Valley, Ariz., couple who are parties to a lawsuit…