“Marriage Discrimination Inflicts Ongoing Injury to the Dignity and Emotional Well-Being of Millions of Children, Parents, and Other Family Members.”
Washington DC- Family Equality Council has jointly filed an amicus or “friend of the court” brief with the United States Supreme Court, voicing its support for the three marriage equality cases the Court has been asked to review: Kitchen v. Herbert in Utah, Bishop v. Smith in Oklahoma, and Bostic v. Rainey in Virginia. The brief, filed with COLAGE, Equality Federation, Freedom to Marry, and PFLAG National, offers detailed accounts of how the denial of marriage protections harms LGBTQ families and asks the Court to take up one of these three cases to settle the marriage equality issue once and for all.
Read the full brief here: http://freemarry.3cdn.net/d70e2407cc970e9db0_sbm6bhxaw.pdf
Statement from Executive Director Gabriel Blau:
“Joining this important amicus brief with our partners is an extension of our ongoing work to educate judges at the highest levels about how the denial of marriage protections significantly hurts the children of LGBTQ parents, economically, in healthcare and in a variety of other areas, relegating our families to second-class citizenship status.
“From the landmark Windsor and Perry cases in 2013, to the most recent Indiana and Wisconsin cases before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, to the Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia cases referenced above, we continue to capture the attention of judges throughout the nation with our arguments on the importance of safeguarding our children. This latest brief reiterates that truth to the highest court in the land. As we articulate in the brief, ‘Marriage discrimination inflicts ongoing injury to the dignity and emotional well-being of millions of children, parents, and other family members,’ and… ‘To leave this question unresolved nationwide would simply inflict continued unnecessary harm.’”
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About Family Equality Council®: Family Equality Council® connects, supports, and represents the three million parents who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer in this country today and their six million children of all ages. We are changing attitudes and policies to ensure that all families are respected, loved, and celebrated—including families with parents who are LGBTQ. We are a community of parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren that reaches across this country. For over 30 years we have raised our children and raised our voices toward fairness for all families.