The 2012 ballot isn’t the only place where a raging debate on same-sex marriage is taking place in Minnesota. Three same-sex couples filed an appeal in July in their bid to overturn Minnesota’s Defense of Marriage Act, and groups on both sides of the issue have filed paperwork with the court offering strongly worded arguments on the issue of marriage equality.
Judge Mary DuFresne dismissed a lawsuit by three Minnesota same-sex couples seeking the right to marry on Tuesday. DuFresne dismissed the suit with prejudice, meaning the decision can be appealed. The couples –Duane Gajewski and Doug Benson, Lindzi Campbell and Jesse Dykhuis, John Rittman and Tom Trisko — have vowed to bring their case to a higher court. The case was filed in Minnesota’s Fourth District Court after the couples were denied marriage licenses in Hennepin County in spring 2010.
Same-sex couples who are suing the state of Minnesota for the right to marry are urging Gov. Mark Dayton, Attorney General Lori Swanson and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to follow the Obama administration’s lead. Late last month, President Barack…
A district court judge heard oral arguments from the State of Minnesota on Friday urging the court to dismiss a lawsuit by three couples who are suing for the right to marry. Solicitor General Alan Gilbert argued that because the Minnesota Supreme Court rejected same-sex marriage in 1971, that the matter is already decided and the case should be dropped. Same-sex marriage supporters have argued that cultural and political shifts since the early 1970s have made the issue once again relevant for the state’s court system.
A judge has rejected an attempt by the Minnesota Family Council to intervene in a lawsuit challenging state law that bans same-sex marriage. Three same-sex couples filed a lawsuit against the state of Minnesota earlier this year arguing that the Defense of Marriage Act signed into law in 1997 violates the state Constitution. The Family Council argued that it should be part of the lawsuit, in part, because if DOMA is ruled unconstitutional, it will cost them millions to fight same-sex marriage. The court said the group has no standing to defend DOMA.
It’s unlikely same-sex marriage will become law in Minnesota this year — Gov. Tim Pawlenty will undoubtedly veto it and skittish DFLers may vote against it in an election year — but the bill’s chief author in the Senate says it could get a hearing and possibly make it out of committee.
An unprecedented number of bills has been introduced this legislative session that would grant same-sex couples legal status similar to that of married couples. But they have all have died quiet deaths, as leaders say they don’t have the votes to pass then, even out of DFL-dominated committees.
Three same-sex couples were denied marriage licenses at the Hennepin County Courthouse on Friday, laying the groundwork for a lawsuit to repeal Minnesota’s Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA, passed in 1997, prohibits same-sex couples from marrying and defines marriage as between two members of the opposite sex.
As many as 10 same-sex couples will soon file a lawsuit against the state of Minnesota for the right to marry. It’s a controversial move, one that some in the gay and lesbian community think is ill-timed, but those couples who are putting their money on the line and their lives under a microscope say the time is always right to fight for equality.
I sat down with Doug Benson, founder of the organization Marry Me Minnesota, a nonprofit group that formed last year and that is helping to organize the lawsuit. Benson and his partner are also part of the planned lawsuit.
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