American Foundation for Equal Rights

AFER Calls Utah’s Decision Not To Legally Recognize Same-Sex Marriages “Harmful” and “Demeaning”

PRESS CONTACT:

Los Angeles, CA – The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the sole sponsor of the landmark federal constitutional challenge that eliminated California’s Proposition 8, issued the following statement regarding today’s decision by the office of Utah Governor Gary Herbert not to recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples that were performed after the state’s ban on gay marriage was struck down.

“Utah’s rush to ignore the marriages of more than one thousand loving gay and lesbian couples is cruel, demeaning and, as Governor Herbert himself acknowledges, causes real harm to their families and children,” said Adam Umhoefer, Executive Director of The American Foundation for Equal Rights.  “These families should not be stuck in legal limbo while the State’s appeal plays out.  We call on the federal government to give them some measure of human dignity to which they are constitutionally entitled by recognizing their marriages under federal law.”

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About the American Foundation for Equal Right

Since its founding in 2009, the American Foundation for Equal Rights has fought for full federal marriage equality for all Americans.  As the sole sponsor of the federal constitutional challenge to California’s Proposition 8, AFER brought together bipartisan attorneys Theodore B. Olson and David Boies to secure a victory at the United States Supreme Court that restored marriage equality to our nation’s most populous state.  AFER continues its legacy of fighting for marriage equality for all Americans through Bostic v. Rainey, the federal constitutional challenge to Virginia’s discriminatory and harmful Marriage Amendment. To learn more, visit www.afer.org.