Gay-rights activists welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act, but said they’ll still be denied marriage equality in Arkansas.
Legal experts in Arkansas say the ruling paves the way for married same-sex couples to begin receiving federal tax and death benefits, along with federal health benefits and Social Security. But the ruling, experts said, wouldn’t have any immediate effect on most gay couples in Arkansas - a state where a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage has been in place since 2004.
Because the U.S. Supreme Court did not consider section 2 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows states to disregard same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, states can still refuse to recognize same-sex marriages. In essence, a same-sex marriage performed in New York will still be invalid in Arkansas despite the ruling, attorneys and activists said.
Rita Sklar, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, applauded the Supreme Court’s decision in an interview Wednesday. But she doesn’t expect it to breed much change within the state; perhaps it would change hearts and minds, she said.
“I think that Americans and Arkansans will see the inherent unfairness in the fact that the federal government will recognize a person’s marriage but the state of Arkansas doesn’t,” she said.
According to Terri Beiner, a constitutional-law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the Supreme Court decision lays the groundwork for the federal government to recognize the legitimacy of Arkansas homosexual couples who have wed outside the state where same-sex marriage is legal.
“I think this is a pretty progay-rights executive branch, so they’re more likely to go ahead and say, ‘We’re gonna recognize them nationwide,’” Beiner said.
Hours after the Supreme Court handed down its ruling, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced the Pentagon would be providing equal benefits to homosexual service members and their familiesthroughout the United States. The rest of the federal government is expected to follow suit, according to Beiner.
Spokeman Matt DeCample with the governor’s office said Wednesday that the governor would not issue a public comment on the ruling. Beebe will continue to uphold the constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage in Arkansas, DeCample said.
Lesbian-gay-bisexual-transsexual advocacy groups in Little Rock met Wednesday’s ruling with cautious optimism. Cornelius Mabin, chief operating officer of the Living Affected Corp. - a grass-roots organization advocating justice and equality for homosexuals - called Wednesday’s news a symbolic victory for gays in Arkansas. He said he doesn’t think it poses an immediate threat to Arkansas’ ban on gay marriage, but expressed hope that “sometime in the new future we’ll also be able to embrace the concept of marriage equality.”
“We hope the states affected enjoy the privileges awarded to them,” he said. “For us, we’re trying to deal with homegrown issues.”
Some called the ruling a sign of the times, but Arkansas Family Council President Jerry Cox said in a phone interview Monday night that it didn’t signal any broader movement to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide. Arkansans remain firm in their belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman, he said, and that the state’s gay-marriage ban would not be jeopardized.
“In a way, we’re a little bit encouraged because the proponents of same-sex marriage made the very best arguments for [legalizing same-sex marriage] that they could possibly make,” Cox said. “And the court looked at those arguments and said, ‘No, we’re not going to find that people have a constitutional right to a same sex marriage.’”
Chris Oswalt, an attorney for a Little Rock law firm that deals with same-sex couple family law, said that while Wednesday’s ruling didn’t address states’ ability to ban gay marriages, it provided the momentum for a challenge in the future. Whether in Arkansas or another state, he said, a samesex couple would likely sue - and as early as today- to gainthe privileges of marriage in states where it’s legal.
“I do think it’s inevitable,” said Oswalt of Robertson Law Firm in Little Rock.
Such a challenge would have more immediate relevance to Arkansans, Oswalt said.
“To have any real effect in Arkansas, [in] one of the states that has a statute similar to ours, somebody’s gonna have to challenge that,” he said.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 06/27/2013