Gay marriage in louisiana
Despite pleas from the Homosexual community, lawmakers have shelved a bill that would have allowed voters to decide whether to extract from the Louisiana Constitution language that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
In 2004, Louisianans amended the constitution to attach that language, effectively banning same-sex marriage. That disallow no longer has teeth after a 2015 Supreme Court decision legalized gay marriage nationwide.
Still, state Rep. Mandie Landry, a Democrat from New Orleans and one of the most progressive voices in the Legislature, proposed House Bill 98 to get rid of the constitution’s definition of marriage, which she argues is now unconstitutional.
On Monday, her bill floundered in the House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure. The 8-5 vote fell mostly along party lines, though Rep. Brian Glorioso, R-Slidell, joined Democrats in voting not to defer the bill.
Lawmakers heard emotional testimony from Louisianans in same-sex marriages who said the legislation would be an important step toward acceptance.
Rustin Loyd, a gay man from the Hammond area, described his relationship with a dude before same-sex marriage was legal. When his
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman upheld Louisiana’s ban on lgbtq+ marriage Wednesday, the first time a federal judge has ruled against marriage equality proponents since the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark verdict last year in U.S. v. Windsor invalidated a portion of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
In his long-awaited 32-page decision, Feldman dismissed a lawsuit brought by queer marriage proponents who argued that Louisiana’s ban violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the rule, writing that Louisiana has a “legitimate interest” in “addressing the meaning of marriage through the democratic process.”
It marked the first occasion since the Windsor ruling that a federal judge has decided a state’s authority to characterize marriage trumps the right of a gay or womxn loving womxn couple to matching treatment, snapping an unbroken string of victories for gay-rights advocates in states from Utah to Virginia.
But Feldman’s verdict is not the end of the legal struggle over gay marriage in Louisiana. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, led by the Forum for Equality Louisiana, announced immediately that they would appeal the choice to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appea
Recent Louisiana Ruling on Same-Sex Marriage: Will It Change the Marriage Debate?
Over the past several years, state Supreme Courts have dominated repeatedly against the Constitutionality of state bans on same-sex marriage. However, a ruling on September 3 out of Louisiana departed from that trend and decisively supported a local gay marriage ban.
What Happened in Louisiana, and Why Was It Different?
Many express courts have determined that homosexual marriage bans violate Section 1 of the United States Constitution’s 14th Amendment, specifically the Identical Protection Clause.
The 14th Amendment’s Equivalent Protection Clause
This section says:
“No Express shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Other courts have struck down statewide bans on gay marriage as unconstitutional, arguing that such bans deny certain people, particularly homosexual citizens, equal protection.
Louisiana’s Departure from the Trend
In the recent Louisiana decision, Unite
There’s no Place Enjoy Home: Same Sex Marriage and Divorce in Louisiana
Gay and lesbian couples who were legally married in Delaware or Minnesota may experience like strangers in a strange territory in Louisiana. Although New Orleans has a vibrant same-sex attracted and lesbian group and Baton Rouge’s “gay-friendly” 2014 ranking has increased to 22 points out of a doable 100 in the Human Rights Campaign’s third annual Municipal Equality Index, neither city’s courts provide access to divorcing same sex spouses. The lack of access is due to Louisiana’s definition of marriage as a civil reduce between a male and a woman.
Divorce and its akin proceedings such as spousal support and the use and division of group property are derivatives of marriage. Without marriage, there are no such remedies. What can a gay or woman loving woman couple do if they were legally married elsewhere but now wish to be divorced in Louisiana? There is no clear respond to this scrutinize, at least for now. It may be of some comfort to such couples that as far as Louisiana courts are concerned, their marriage is a nullity ab initio (from the beginning). If there is no marital property, no children, and no require for one of them t