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Expert testimony continues in Day 3 of Mich. same-sex marriage trial

Expert testimony continues in Day 3 of Mich. same-sex marriage trial

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.

Paul Sancya, AP (File)
April DeBoer, second from left, sits with her adopted daughter Ryanne, left, 3, and Jayne Rowse, fourth from left, and her adopted sons Jacob, 3, middle, and Nolan, 4, right, at their home in Hazel Park, Mich. U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman is presiding over a trial on the women’s challenge to Michigan’s ban on gay marriage and joint adoptions by same-sex couples.

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.

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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