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Evan Wolfson: Statement: Nebraska Ruling

Freedom to Marry
May 13, 2005

On May 12, 2004, the federal district court in Nebraska found the state's sweeping anti-gay constitutional amendment in violation of federal constitutional guarantees of equal protection, the first amendment, and other safeguards that protect every American against discrimination. The court struck down the barrier against gay families' ability to do what every American has a right to do: seek changes in the law on a level playing-field so as to be treated equally.

Evan Wolfson comments on U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon's ruling:

Government has no business putting obstacles in the path of people seeking to care for one another under law, and the court correctly found that Nebraska's sweeping anti-gay constitutional amendment offended basic American values of fairness, equality, family protection, and access to the government.

The ongoing state-by-state campaign to fence gay people out of the polical process — and fence gay couples and their kids out of marriage and other forms of family protection are un-American and harmful — violates the bedrock principle that every American can work to change the law through the legislature, through local government, and through the courts on a level playing-field.

The constitutional amendments pushed by right-wing groups state by state to tie the hands of all states, all cities and government agencies, and all future generations to prevent any protection or fair treatment of gay family members — and to prevent gay Americans from even asking for any level of protection — are unconstitutional and un-American.

The court was right to do what courts are supposed to do — guarantee each of us our right to equal justice under law and equal citizenship in our country and home state.

Read the Nebraska ruling. [MISSING PDF]