The Supreme Court of the United States on Monday denied review in all of the freedom to marry cases pending before it. As a result of the Court’s action, same-sex couples in Virginia will now be able to marry the partners they love and married same sex-couples will be able to have their marriages recognized in Virginia.
“The ACLU of Virginia is beyond excited to have been able to help bring the freedom to marry to the thousands of lgbt Virginians who deserve to be able to marry the person they love and to have their marriages recognized,” said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Claire Guthrie Gastañaga.
The ACLU nationally was co-counsel in five of the seven petitions that were denied today, in cases from Virginia, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Today’s orders also mean that same-sex marriage will soon become lawful in at least 30 states.
“Many people forget that almost one million Virginia voters voted against writing marriage discrimination into the Virginia constitution in 2006. The Supreme Court’s action today erases this blot from the Virginia Bill of Rights,” concluded Gastañaga
The ACLU has been working for the rights of lgbt people since 1936, when it brought its first gay rights case. The organization filed the first freedom-to-marry lawsuit for same-sex couples in 1970, represented Edie Windsor in her successful challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act in June 2013, and has filed thirteen federal marriage lawsuits on behalf of same-sex couples since then.
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