The American Civil Liberties Union has moved to amend a 2012 lawsuit to include a challenge to North Carolina’s ban on same-sex marriage.
The ACLU filed the original lawsuit, Fisher-Borne v. Smith, on behalf of six same-sex couples and their children. It challenged the state’s ban on second-parent adoption, or when one partner adopts the other partner’s biological or adoptive child.
Once the lawsuit has been amended, it will challenge both the ban on second-parent adoption and the ban on same-sex marriage.
On July 12, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced that he would not oppose the amendment to the lawsuit. Now The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina must give its approval in order for the amendment to become official, and then the newly modified lawsuit will be able to proceed.
Amendment 1, which was passed in May of 2012, forbids the state from recognizing or performing same-sex marriages. The ACLU lawsuit, once altered, would challenge that amendment.
In a statement released on its website, the ACLU said that recognizing same-sex couples’ marriages would help protect those couples’ children.
The website cites the examples of providing health insurance to all children in the family if one partner lacks health insurance and allowing either parent to make medical decisions if their child is hospitalized.
The move to amend the lawsuit came two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which ruled that defining marriage as being between one man and one woman was unconstitutional.
Justine Hollingshead, director of the GLBT Center at N.C. State, said now that Section 3 of DOMA has been ruled unconstitutional, GLBT supporters have a precedent they can use to challenge laws like Amendment 1.
The North Carolina Values Coalition, one of the groups which backed Amendment 1 last year, issued a statement on its website condemning Cooper’s decision.
“Allowing the ACLU to amend [their] lawsuit with an assault on the constitutionality of our Marriage Amendment would be a miscarriage of justice …It is an insult to the voters of North Carolina that the ACLU has sought to overturn their vote to protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman by turning to the federal courts.”
Students at N.C. State had varied opinions on the issue of same-sex marriage and adoption.
“I don’t think people should be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation,” said Kris Vandenbroek, human biology major. “People should be allowed to have the same legal benefits. If I were lesbian I would expect the law to treat me fairly.”
Civil engineering major Jake Currie said, “I believe that the Bible is clear that homosexuality is a sin, and homosexuality is not the way God created the world to be. However, Christianity isn’t about declaring sins to other people, but about developing a relationship with God.”
Currie said that for that reason, he would not vote for Amendment 1 if it was being voted on today.
Hollingshead said N.C. State has recently shown itself to be largely in favor of same-sex marriage. She cited a 2012 Pack Poll survey that showed 87 percent of all students supported same-sex marriage.
“It’s one of the telling signs your generation is at a different place than my generation is in their understanding of same-sex marriage and support,” said Hollingshead. “It gives me hope.”
