Two South Carolina lesbians who were married in Washington, DC, last year have launched a lawsuit against the state’s gay-marriage ban, The Associated Press reports.
Katherine Bradacs and Tracie Goodwin filed the suit against Governor Nikki Haley and Attorney General Alan Wilson.
South Carolina passed a constitutional amendment in 2006 banning same-sex marriage. “They are treated as legal strangers in their home state of South Carolina,” the couple’s lawyer said in court papers.
Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2013/09/02/3684000/gay-couple-sues-over-sc-same-sex.html#storylink=cpy
Bradacs, who works as a highway patrol trooper, claims in the suit that if she were killed in the line of duty, South Carolina’s ban on gay marriage would deny her partner state benefits.
“Neither traditional nor moral disapproval of same-sex relationships or marriage for gay and lesbian couples is a legitimate basis for unequal treatment of same-sex couples under the law,” the suit states.
A spokesman for Governor Haley said Sept 3 that the state would fight to protect the ban.
The Associated Press also reported Aug 2 that a campaign to legalize gay marriage in Arizona has “gone dormant” because organizers say they cannot win in the next election.
The Human Rights Campaign, which says it will not fund the effort, notes that support for gay marriage in Arizona is still low, and voter turnout will be even lower in a mid-term election.
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