Updated: 4:00 p.m. EST
DETROIT — A California scholar says that same-sex couples give the same reason as their opposite-sex counterparts to why they want to marry.
Gary Gates of the Williams Institute at UCLA law school testified Thursday in a trial in Detroit federal court over the future of Michigan’s ban on gay marriage.
Gates is co-author of a book on demographics of the gay and lesbian population. He’s used census data to study the characteristics of same-sex couples.
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He testified Thursday that gay couples say the reason they seek marriage are love, companionship and making a lifetime commitment.
Detroit-area nurses Jayne Rowse and April DeBoer are asking a judge to overturn a 2004 constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage. They say it violates their rights under the U.S. Constitution.
Follow the case: DeBoer v. Snyder.
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