On October 16th, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman will be hearing a case, which challenges Michigan’s Constitutional ban on gay marriage.
The case didn’t start out that way. It started out as a court case to simply protect the futures of these three little kids who really don’t understand such things as government and lawyers and courts. They only know they have a happy home with their two moms.
DeBoer and Rowse wanted to jointly adopt their kids to better protect their futures. The State of Michigan argued, no way. They can’t. They’re not married.
Their case has become the most anticipated development in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people’s rights in Michigan. They’re involved in a Federal court case that challenges the state’s Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
The two women explained they had no intention to challenge the gay marriage ban. That was something the judge suggested.
“We were not looking for the marriage amendment fight. This has never been about us getting married. This has been about our rights and our children’s rights and protecting them. You know, it’s one thing when you’re looking at second-parent adoption, you know, this is about the kids...When you start talking about the marriage amendment, it’s more about our relationship and what we want and that gets a little bit scarier because people are a little more opinionated about a marriage, a gay marriage than they are about children having two parents.”
Today, we talked with Emily Dievendorf, the Managing Director of Equality Michigan and Jay Kaplan, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan to discuss the issue.
Listen to the full interview above.
