INDIANA: Marriage Lawsuit Filed

Add Indiana to the list.

Four couples from southern Indiana are asking a federal judge to force the state to recognize same-sex marriages from other states and issue marriage licenses to gay couples. The couples are suing the state of Indiana in a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in New Albany that seeks to overturn an Indiana law that declares same-sex marriages void, even if another state recognizes the union. The plaintiffs and their attorneys met with reporters Friday afternoon in Louisville, Ky., and said the recent debate over a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in Indiana spurred their suit.

That leaves eight states without an active marriage lawsuit: Alaska, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

UPDATE: More about the lawsuit.

Louisville law firm Clay Daniel Walton & Adams announced the lawsuit today at its offices. The lawsuit was filed in Southern District of Indiana, which has a courthouse in New Albany. The couples are from Clark and Floyd counties and it's the only such federal case involving Indiana. Attorney Daniel Canon said during a media conference Friday that Indiana is now under leadership that says his clients do not deserve the same rights, responsibilities and privileges provided to opposite-sex couples, simple because they are in a same-sex relationships. “All of these couples that we represent are like any other opposite-sex couples in the state of Indiana,” he said. “They live as married couples. They raise their kids together. They work and go to church in Indiana. They pay their taxes in the state of Indiana.”