Replies

Two Gay Couples Denied Marriage Licenses In Beverly Hills
National Lawyer Says She Will File Suit

POSTED: 11:10 AM PST February 12, 2004
UPDATED: 11:32 AM PST February 12, 2004

LOS ANGELES -- Two gay couples were denied marriage licenses Thursday in Beverly Hills, leading a local attorney to announce she will sue to challenge the ban on gay marriages in California.

Feb. 12 is recognized by gay-advocacy groups as National Freedom to Marry Day, and several groups encouraged gay couples nationwide to go to courthouses and apply for marriage licenses today.

The date was chosen because of its proximity to Lincoln's Birthday and Valentine's Day, which "links equality and love," said the Rev. Troy D. Perry, one of the people taking part in Thursday's action at the Beverly Hills Courthouse.

Perry, the founder of the Metropolitan Community Churches, is the first openly gay member of the Los Angeles Human Rights Commission and a past delegate to the White House Conference on Hate Crimes.

Perry said he and his partner Phillip Ray DeBlieck had a "Holy Union Ceremony" in the United States, and said they were legally married in Canada last July.

But Perry and DeBlieck -- along with lesbian rights activist Robin Tyler and her partner, Diane Olson, granddaughter of former California Democratic Gov. Culbert Levy Olson -- were denied marriage licenses Thursday in Beverly Hills.

Instead, officials gave them fliers detailing California's same-sex marriage ban.

"We're not going to the back of the bus. We're not not getting on the bus, we're not not sitting at the lunch counter, we're just not taking civil union, domestic partnership, we're just not taking it anymore," Tyler said.

Attorney Gloria Allred said she will sue to challenge the gay marriage ban, adding that she plans on pursuing the case all the way to the California Supreme Court.

"It's time to make a legal challenge," she said. "And so we will be filing the lawsuit. There is no precedent. There are no appellate cases in California on this issue, and so we think it's long overdue and we're going to fight that fight now."

Perry said he was disappointed by Thursday's action.

"The only difference in our relationship between everybody else's in California is our sex," he said. "It's who we are. We pay taxes for everybody else's kids to go to school, which we don't mind, but we want equal treatment."

Although California does not recognize same-sex marriages, a law enacted by former Gov. Gray Davis gives domestic partners most of the legal rights and responsibilities of married couples.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts lawmakers are meeting Thursday to discuss an amendment to the state constitution that would nullify the state high court's decision last week allowing gays and lesbians to wed.

In some countries, such as northern European nations, gay marriage is legal. Nevertheless, gay couples who are married outside the US are not recognized as married couples when they return to the US.

Since American states are free to disregard gay marriages in Sweden, while accepting hetero marriages in Sweden, why can't the states have the same policy toward Massachusetts?

If the states pick and choose which marriages are considered legal in their jurisdiction when it comes to foreign marriages, why are the states not free to do the same about marriages in other states?