Judge Orders Kentucky To Recognize Gay Marriage; State Seeks Delay

Another state is stripped of institutionalized discrimination as “Gay Jim Crow” continues to collapse:

A federal judge on Thursday ordered Kentucky to immediately recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

The order from US district judge John G Heyburn II makes official a 12 February ruling in which he said the state’s denial of recognition of the marriages violates the constitutional guarantee to equal protection under law.

Ahead of Heyburn’s release of the order, Kentucky’s attorney general, Jack Conway, asked the judge to delay its going into effect by 90 days. Conway said the delay would give him the time to decide whether to appeal the ruling and allow the state to prepare to implement the order. Heyburn has not yet ruled on Conway’s request.

“To the extent [that state laws] deny validly married same-sex couples equal recognition and benefits under Kentucky and federal law, those laws violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, and they are void and unenforceable,” Heyburn wrote in Thursday’s two-sentence order.

Dan Canon, the attorney representing the four same-sex couples who won the case, told the Courier Journal: “We are cautiously optimistic. The order has been granted without qualification and without a stay.”

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.