A federal court judge has ruled that Michigan must recognise more than 300 same-sex marriages that were performed in the state during a short window of legality last year. Reform advocates hailed the decision as a victory for marriage equality.
Eight same-sex couples, who married after a court ruling in March 2014 permitted equal marriage in the state and before the decision was stayed the next day in a court of appeal, brought a lawsuit against the state of Michigan after it refused to recognise the validity of their unions.
US district judge Mark Goldsmith ruled on Thursday that the state’s policy of non-recognition had divested the plaintiffs “of an essential human dimension in their lives – the legally recognised bond of committed intimacy in a marriage that was solemnised and recognised as valid by the challenging state – the loss of which unquestionably wounds them deeply”.
Goldsmith stayed the decision for 21 days, pending an appeal by the state.
Jay Kaplan, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan LGBT Project, which represents the eight plaintiffs, said the decision would allow the couples to “finally begin to move away from the uncertainty and unfairness and toward the fulfillment of their shared dreams”.
“These marriages are cherished and valid – same as any other – and it’s only right that the courts and our country recognise as much,” Kaplan said in a statement.
Michigan’s refusal to recognise the 323 same sex marriages performed in the window affected the couples’ ability to jointly adopt children and entitlement to health insurance benefits.
“Being legally married and receiving the benefits and protections of marriage are not, and cannot be, mutually exclusive,” said Glenna DeJong, a lead plaintiff in the case. “Yet the couples married on 22 March were caught in a paradox – we were married and we were not.
“It’s stressful having to work so hard for something that seems so simple. Other married couples don’t have to jump through these hoops and become activists just to be treated equally. We don’t want special rights, just the same rights afforded to other married couples.”
Michigan’s same-sex marriage ban is the subject of one of four such cases before the supreme court, which could announce as early as Friday that it will review one, a few or all of the cases. The court, however, is under no obligation to review the cases.
Having more than 300 same-sex marriages valid in a state that does not have legal same-sex marriage presents a number of bureaucratic challenges. Inconsistency in how same-sex marriage is addressed state-by-state is the key reason lawmakers and people on both sides of the issue are anxious for a decision from the nation’s highest court.
“We are reviewing judge Goldsmith’s decision but as I have said repeatedly, the sooner the United States supreme court makes a decision on this issue, the better it will be for Michigan and America,” said Michigan attorney general Bill Schuette.
