By now you know that the United State Supreme Court has overturned state bans on same-sex marriage making it legal throughout the country in its ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. The plaintiffs in the case come from four different states and have different reasons to challenge their state’s bans on same-sex marriage:
James Obergefell of Ohio was with John Arthur for more than 20 years. John had ALS when they married in Maryland, but they filed suit in their home state of Ohio in order to have their marriage recognized so that they could be buried together in a family plot in a cemetery that allows only spouses and relatives. When John died in 2013, a judge ruled that his death certificate could list him as married. Ohio appealed the ruling. If the Supreme Court had ruled otherwise, John’s death certificate would have been amended to remove his marriage to James.
April DeBoer and Jayne Rowe of Michigan are both nurses who became concerned about the fate of their four special needs children after a close call which could have become a deadly car accident. Michigan does not allow unmarried couples to adopt and did not allow same-sex marriage, so April and Jayne each adopted two of their children. Legally, they were not a family. April and Jayne realized that if something happened to either or both of them, the family would be split up.
Greg Bourke and Michael DeLeon of Kentucky were married in Canada in 2004. Their marriage was recognized by the federal government in the 2013 DOMA decision, but Kentucky did not recognize the marriage. Together for more than 30 years, the men have two adopted teenagers together, but only one of them could be considered a parent of each child.
Valeria Tanco and Sophy Jesty of Tennessee were legally married in New York, but their marriage was not recognized when they moved to Tennessee. Also parents, concern about both of them having rights to their daughter was foremost to them.