American Foundation for Equal Rights

Marriage News Blog

AFER Gives Thanks

By Adam Umhoefer, AFER Executive Director

This year, we have much to be thankful for.

Gay and lesbian couples will soon be able to get married in Maine, Maryland and Washington. For the first time, we defeated a state constitutional ban on marriage for gay and lesbian couples at the ballot box. We have elected the first openly LGBT person to the U.S. Senate. And earlier this year, California’s Proposition 8 was ruled unconstitutional by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, paving the way for a final decision on the matter from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Next Friday, November 30 the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether it will hear AFER’s federal constitutional challenge to Prop. 8, as well as several cases challenging  the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Be sure you are signed up for breaking news updates from AFER. The Court is expected to announce its decision by on Monday, December 3 at 9:30 a.m. ET/6:30 a.m. PT.

If the Justices hear our case, AFER’s legal team, led by distinguished co-counsel Ted Olson and David Boies, will argue before the nation’s highest court that all Americans are guaranteed the fundamental freedom to marry the person of they love, and that state-sponsored discrimination of gay and lesbian Americans is unconstitutional.

If the Court declines to hear our case, Prop. 8 will be gone for good and marriage equality will be restored in California.

And once DOMA is overturned, countless loving couples and their families in states with marriage equality will finally have access to over 1,100 federal benefits and protections, and know that the federal government treats them and their families with equal dignity and respect.

2012 has surely been a landmark year for marriage equality, and I am confident that by this time next year we will have even more to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Adam