FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Marriage Equality USA Celebrates Unanimous Victory in 7th Circuit Court cites welfare of children and similarities to previous bans on interracial marriage in powerful ruling Chicago/New York • 4 September 2014 - Marriage Equality USA leaders from coast to coast heralded todays unanimous victory in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. As a child of interracial parents who grew up in Wisconsin in the 1960s, I know exactly what Judge Posner meant when he wrote that asking interracial couples in the 1960s to accept same-race unions instead of marriage would have been considered deeply offensive, and, having no justification other than bigotry, said MEUSA Communications Director Stuart Gaffney. While I am very thankful for the United States Supreme Courts 1967 ruling that gave interracial couples the freedom to marry all across our country, today, as a gay American, its time for the same court to rule that LGBTQ Americans in all 50 states have that same basic human right to marry the person they love. Steve Huesing, MEUSA Interim Board President, enthused: As a Midwesterner, I am thrilled by todays decision. While I live in Chicago, where marriage equality is already the law, I am so glad that our neighbors in Indiana and Wisconsin no longer have to leave their home states to get married. We hope that marriages will begin soon in those states, or, if the United States Supreme Court decides to hear the case, this case will bring marriage equality to all Americans. Todays decision is a tremendous victory for all Americans who believe in love, freedom and equality, said MEUSA Executive Director Brian Silva. Its no surprise that the decision came so quickly, given that at the hearing the opponents of equality could offer no answer when asked to demonstrate any harm that would result from marriage equality. With todays decision from the 7th Circuit, all three federal circuits that have issued opinions have ruled in favor of all loving, committed couples having the freedom to marry before their friends and family in the states they call home. With todays decision, forty courts have now ruled in favor of the freedom to marry in the past year alone. Todays decision marks another huge leap forward in the now unstoppable movement for full nationwide equality, concluded MEUSA Legal and Policy Director John Lewis.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 21:00:32 +0000