Hetero Couple Files to Stop gay Marriage in Kansas
Claiming that their marriage is protected by the 5th Amendment, a Kansas couple is filing a lawsuit to keep gay marriage from coming to the Sunflower State.
The lawsuit comes from Attorney Phillip Unruh and his wife Sandra. The couple is asking a federal court out of Kansas City to let them intervene in a gay marriage case.
Unruh’s lawsuit is a motion to become a party to a lawsuit in Kansas City Federal Court and regards the definition of marriage.
Phil Unruh, an attorney from Harper said,
“I’m asking to become a party to the lawsuit in the Kansas City federal district court case between the plaintiffs that’s filed against the state of Kansas. They are requesting that the court determine that the Kansas constitution defining marriage be found unconstitutional. My wife and I are asking to intervene.
The state will be arguing of support of the laws that the state of Kansas has. The plaintiffs will be looking at their rights.
And we feel married people have rights too and we want to speak up for our rights as married people. And we are concerned that a decision will be made and if a decision is going to be made we want to have our day in court as well.”
A federal judge was scheduled to hear arguments for and against Kansas’ gay marriage ban on Friday but was postponed by the court
ACLU attorney Doug Bonney said U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Crabtree is considering whether to reschedule the oral arguments or decide the case based on the parties’ written arguments.
Bonney said he told Crabtree during a 30-minute conference Thursday that the ACLU did not have time to review the state’s written response to the lawsuit because it had just been filed.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit for two lesbian couples denied marriage licenses in Douglas and Sedgwick counties.
The couples sought the licenses after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear appeals from five other states seeking to preserve gay-marriage bans.
The ALCU argues that gay couples should not be prevented from marrying, while government officials try to defend the state’s constitutional prohibition against gay marriages. They also contend that a federal ruling specific to Kansas law would aid the State Supreme Court in a separate case.
“The ACLU of Kansas understands that the freedom to marry is an important right. Marriage equality is the law in more than 25 states now,” said Susan Estes, Board President of the ACLU of Kansas in the lawsuit filed October 10. “And it’s time for marriage equality in Kansas. All loving and committed couples – without restrictions of state lines or sexual orientation – should have access to the protections that marriage provides.”
Other quotes from the court filing by Unruh included:
“The extension of marriage to same sex relationships inflict profound harm on the Unruhs.”
“A ruling extending marriage to same sex relationships would violate the Unruh’s right to equal protection under the law by the Court’s failure to protect marriage and support the right of Kansas citizens to codify its implicit meaning.”I
In a phone interview with Unruh Thursday, he said he felt like this was an action he felt he had to take.
“We feel married people have rights to and we want to speak up for our rights as married people. And we are concerned that a decision will be made and if a decision is going to be made we want to have our day in court as well,” said Unruh.
Part of Unruh’s concern is regarding the definition of marriage.
“We’re not sure what marriage means at this point and time. It meant what our constitution says it meant, since the beginning of civilization, now we don’t have a definition at all…If the Kansas City District Court finds our constitution amendment defining marriage is unconstitutional, I think, a decision that changes the word from meaning something to meaning nothing affects my rights, I think I have the right for it to stay the same.”
“We don’t want to have our word extended to include their relationship. We don’t want to share the word that we use for our relationship with theirs that’s deeply disturbing to me and my wife, said Unruh. “And I’m not speaking for the rest of the married people in the state of Kansas, but apparently 70 percent of the people who voted for the constitutional amendment felt the way.”
Governor Sam Brownback has been one of the strong supporters of the 2005 vote that created the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The state already banned gay marriage before the vote, but the constitutional amendment was meant to shore up the law against legal challenges.
Asked whether same-sex marriage would personally affect Unruh’s marriage with his wife he responded: “No, but it would affect the joy and celebration that we think of a when we think of marriage, because we would also have to have in mind on a daily basis that its now shared with people, that, who have the same sex relationships. The word would be a disturbing emotion for us on a daily basis, know that the word is being shared with people who are in a same sex relationship.”
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