News & Commentary

Written by Wisconsin Gazette Tuesday, 24 June 2014 15:59

June 6, 2014, will go down in Wisconsin history as the day when county clerks first issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the Badger State. It was on June 6 that federal Judge Barbara Crabb declared that Wisconsin's ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional in a case brought before her by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of eight Wisconsin lesbian and gay couples. The ban, the judge declared, violated the plaintiffs' fundamental right to marry and their right to equal protection of laws under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Despite Crabb's stay of her subsequent June 13 order and the obstinate resistance of Gov. Scott Walker and Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, on June 6 our state joined the r

In 2006, Wisconsin Referendum 1 passed, and became Article XIII, Section 13 of the state constitution.  It banned same-sex marriage, saying “Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state.”

After Judge Crabb issues her decision in Wolf v. Walker, we will be hosting Decision Day rallies TODAY from 4:30 to 6:30pm all across the state where we will celebrate a favorable ruling for the freedom to marry!

Update:  In February, we amended our complaint to add four additional couples for a total of eight couples seeking the freedom to marry in Wisconsin or have their out-of-state marriages recognized.  We also requested a preliminary injunction but withdrew that motion when the Court suggested we instead enter into an expedited schedule for a final ruling and after district attorneys in Milwaukee and Eau Claire agreed not to prosecute two of the couples for leaving Wisconsin to marry.

As the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin (ACLU-WI), and a gay man, I spend a lot of time defending or promoting the civil liberties and rights of other people, regardless of their sexual orientation.  The freedom to marry is an exception.  Thirty-four years ago, when my partner Bob and I got together, very few people or groups talked about marriage equality for gay couples.  Whether or not we wanted to marry wasn’t even a topic for discussion.  Thirty-four years ago the conversation around LGBT rights was much more likely to be about police harassment, unpunished hate crime violence, and job discrimination. 

The American Civil Liberties Union's primary work is litigation, but this month it's moonlighting as a wedding planner as part of its role in the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide.

Salud Garcia and Pam Kleiss

Written by Wisconsin Gazette Wednesday, 26 March 2014 06:21