BY LESBIAN.COM
And another one bites the dust. Since last year’s Supreme Court decision, anti-gay state marriage laws have been biting the dust everywhere they are challenged.
Friday, a federal judge from Ohio’s Southern District indicated that he would require Ohio to recognize same-sex marriages performed legally in other states. Judge Timothy S. Black heard arguments from four same-sex couples who are seeking to have both parents listed on their child’s birth certificates.
The written ruling comes on April 14, but Judge Black said that Ohio’s refusal to recognize valid same-sex marriages violated constitutional protections, according to lawyers from both sides. Furhter, he indicated that he would issue a permanent injunction, barring the state from denying all the rights and benefits of marriage to same-sex couples who were validly married elsewhere.
While the ruling does not allow same-sex couples to legally marry within the state, it is a huge step forward.
“This is a huge day for married same-sex couples in Ohio and, most significantly, for their children,” Susan Sommer, director of constitutional litigation for Lambda Legal, which argued the case, told the New York Times. “Children already born and children soon to be born were being forced by Ohio to travel through life without the security of an accurate birth certificate and without the state’s recognition that they have two parents, not just one.”
