Obama administration urges US Supreme Court to legalize gay marriage

President Barack Obama’s administration has urged America’s Supreme Court to legalize gay marriage across the country.

A “friend of the court” brief was filed by US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli yesterday (March 6), calling for equal rights and warning that state bans “send the inescapable message that same-sex couples and their children are second-class families.”

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36 states currently allow gay marriage, with the court set to hear from plaintiffs from Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Michigan, where it is prohibited.

The Obama administration’s filing was among more than 70 pro-marriage briefs received by the end of yesterday, ahead of the April 28 court hearing.

The 36-page document reads: “Petitioners have formed, and seek legal recognition of, their committed relationships for the same reasons that opposite-sex couples do.

“But their home States persist in excluding them from the “dignity and status” of civil marriage and the “far-reaching legal acknowledgment of the intimate relationship between two people” that civil marriage represents.

“In doing so, those States have burdened petitioners in every aspect of life that marriage touches, from the mundane to the profound.”

It goes on to highlight the “pervasive discrimination” faced by same-sex couples because they cannot legally wed.

It adds: “These cases thus require the Court to decide whether States may deny to lesbian and gay couples—more than 700,000 families, including nearly 220,000 children—equal participation in an institution that gives legal expression and protection to “one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness”.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling is expected in late June.

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