OKLAHOMA: Plaintiffs' Brief Says Marriage Ban Demeans Gay Families

Yesterday the plaintiffs in the Oklahoma marriage case filed a brief with the Tenth Circuit Court which declares that the ban on same-sex marriage is demeaning to gay couples and their families.

The argument came in a 102-page document filed Monday on behalf of Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. Bishop and Baldwin, who have been together for more than 15 years, are suing to be allowed to marry in Oklahoma. Their attorneys argue in the filing that the ban "demeans and humiliates these couples and their children, conveying to them, to family, to friends, to neighbors, to classmates, to teachers, to colleagues, to employers, to officials, to governments, and to all the world that their relationships are unworthy and second-tier," the document stated. The filing came in response to a brief filed last month by the Alliance Defending Freedom that said legalizing gay marriage would harm children, undermine society and make traditional marriages unstable.

In January a federal judge ruled that Oklahoma's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, but he stayed his ruling. Two weeks later Alliance Defending Freedom filed an appeal with the Tenth Circuit Court on behalf of the Tulsa County Clerk. Oral arguments are set to begin on April 10th.