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Following last month’s U.S. Supreme Court rulings that overturned a section of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and struck down a same-sex marriage ban in California, the American Civil Liberties Union says it will seek to do the same with Virginia’s. The ACLU of Virginia is planning on filing a federal lawsuit to undo the same-sex marriage prohibition the commonwealth’s voters adopted in 2006.
But first, the ACLU and its partner in this endeavor, Lambda Legal, need to find couples and families to act as litigants. ““There is no rational reason for denying these loving couples the freedom to marry and every reason to grant them the same recognition by civil authorities that opposite-sex couples have,” Claire Gastanaga, the executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, tells The Washington Times.
The same-sex marriage amendment was approved by 57 percent of Virginia voters, and has sustained several legislative attempts to undo it. The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, overturned the section that defines marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman for the sake of federal benefits, though it left intact the section permitting states to not recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere around the country. Virginia does not recognize same-sex marriages performed in the 13 states and District of Columbia that offer marriage equality.
The ACLU’s forthcoming Virginia lawsuit is part of a broader effort by the organization. On Tuesday, the group, along with 10 couples and a lesbian widow in Pennsylvania filed suit against Gov. Tom Corbett in hopes of overturning the Keystone State’s 1996 law banning same-sex marriage.