The U.S. Supreme Court declared a key provision of DOMA unconstitutional, and marriage equality returned to California after the Court dismissed the Prop 8 case. On July 11th, we put together a panel to give an overview of the decisions, have discussion about what they mean in the Commonwealth, explored next steps in the LGBT rights movement nationally and on the local level.
Panelists included UofL Law Professor Sam Marcosson, First Unitarian Rev. Dawn Cooley, Rev. and Fairness activist Aletha Fields with moderation from the Fairness Campaign's Chris Hartman and the ACLU of KY's Michael Aldridge.
See event photos
Event Summary
DOMA : The decision striking down DOMA does not change Kentucky's constitutional ban on marriage equality. It simply says that once a couple is married, the federal government will respect that marriage for federal purposes. DOMA is the last federal law on the books that mandates discrimination against gay people by the federal government simply because they are gay. The Supreme Court's ruling on DOMA took down the core of the law. The end of DOMA means the beginning of the end of official discrimination against lesbians and gay men.
Now that DOMA is struck down, same-sex couples living in Kentucky who were legally married elsewhere should be treated as married by the federal government. Access to the full range of federal marital protections, however, will take some work and time to achieve.
Prop 8: The decision striking down Prop 8 only applies to California. The return of marriage equality to California means that 30% of the American public now lives in a freedom-to-marry state. That's up from just 11% last October.
Since no state has ever passed marriage equality without first having statewide anti-discrimination protections for LGBT individuals, the work of the Fairness Coalition continues to be fighting for protections from discrimination in the workplace, housing and pubic accommodations.
Many people were interested to begin a conversation about a political and legal strategy to overturn Kentucky's marriage ban. If you are interested, please send an email to LGBT@aclu-ky.org to be added to a listserve to reserve notification of upcoming events.
There are thousands of people in Kentucky's faith communities that are working for Fairness protections. One of them is Rev. Dawn Cooley of First Unitarian Church. To learn more about her congregation's efforts visit their website .
