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Loading ...Four Okla. women continue fight against gay marriage ban
08.12.2009 3:00pm EDT
Four Oklahoma women have filed a new complaint challenging federal and state laws banning gay marriage, reports the Journal Record.
One of the couples, Susan Barton and Gay Phillips, were married in California in Nov., British Columbia in May 2005 and a civil union in Vermont in August 2001. The second couple, Sharon Baldwin and Mary Bishop, have been in a committed relationship for 12 years.“We have, on the surface, the same relationship as hundreds of thousands of couples everywhere,” Baldwin told the Journal. “We have a home, we have a car, we have jobs, we have pets. We have a life together. We have extended family members. We are a couple. We are a married couple in any definition that you want to use, except legal ones. We think it’s time the laws in this country caught up with society.” She said that she and Baldwin are fourth-generation Oklahomans and want to stay in the state.
“Our heritage is here,” she said. “We don’t want to have to move away from that just to have equal rights. It should be the same for people all over the country.
The lawsuit alleges that denying gay people marriage injures them as a class of people, resulting in loss of dignity and respect, and that the current laws violate due process and equal protection guarantees.
Alright you go girls….. and Yes More ppl Need to stand up and be heard…. I’m taking that Stand
Nothing’s gonna change unless people step up. These women have. Good on ‘em!