ACLU, Others Challenge Virginia Gay-Marriage Ban

By William Callahan

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Virginia ACLU, Lambda Legal and law firm Jenner and Block filed a federal class action lawsuit Thursday challenging the Virginia ban on same-sex marriage.

The suit also challenges the commonwealth’s refusal to recognize marriages between same-sex couples from out of state, according to The Washington Post.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two Virginia couples — Joanne Harris and Jessica Duff of Staunton and Christy Berghoff and Victoria Kidd of Winchester — and seeks to represent all gay Virginia couples who want marriage rights.

Democratic state Sen. Adam Ebbin, an openly gay senator from Alexandria who represents a portion of Arlington, released a statement Wednesday commending the groups filing the suit.

“The plaintiffs and thousands of other gay and lesbian couples deserve the same protections as all those Virginians whose marriages are recognized today. They seek equal treatment under the law, nothing more and nothing less,” Ebbin said in the statement.

“I know of too many couples who have left the state due to a lack of the protections now offered to our neighbors in the District of Columbia and Maryland … It is not a question of whether marriage equality will come to Virginia, it is a question of when.”

Harris says in the suit that she has a medical condition and she and Duff would have to pay “lots of money” if there were ever a serious incident and Duff needed to make decisions for Harris.

Berghoff, an Air Force veteran, and Kidd were legally married in Washington, D.C., and want access to the same benefits as other married couples in Virginia.

The news comes on the same day that Minnesota and Rhode Island became the 12th and 13th states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.