Gay Marriage Prop 8 Decision Day Rally
August 4th, 2010
7:00 pm
Dennis R. Neill Equality Center
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August 4th, 2010
Oklahomans for Equality is pleased with the decision in Perry v. Schwarzenegger by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in California to strike down Prop 8 on grounds that it violates equal protection principles of the U.S. Constitution. The verdict overturns the voter-approved ban on gay marriage known as Proposition 8 and is in response to a lawsuit brought by two same-sex couples and the city of San Francisco seeking to invalidate the law as an unlawful infringement on the civil rights of gay men and lesbians. If appealed, the case will go first to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals then to the Supreme Court, if the justices agree to review it.
Today's verdict in Perry v. Schwarzenegger impacts several Gay Oklahomans who were married in California during the brief 5 months that California was issuing marriage licenses to same gender couples. Oklahomans for Equality will honor those Oklahoma couples and their counterparts in California with a Decision Day Rally at 7 p.m. Wednesday (tonight) at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center, 621 East 4th Street in downtown Tulsa. The rally will include speeches and refreshments and opportunities for the media to interview some of the Oklahoma couples who are married in California.
Oklahoma voters approved a ban on gay marriage in 2004. Oklahoma also does not recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships from any other jurisdictions. In November 2004, Sue Barton and Gay Phillips and Sharon Baldwin and Mary Bishop filed a suit in Tulsa U.S. District Court challenging the Oklahoma gay marriage ban and the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Barton and Phillips are married in California and argue in the lawsuit that their marriage should be recognized by Oklahoma and the federal government. Bishop and Baldwin
argue in the lawsuit that they should be able to be lawfully married in Oklahoma.
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Dennis R. Neill Equality Center
Hours: Monday - Saturday 3:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Closed Sunday except for special events.
Oklahomans for Equality | 621 E. 4th Street | Tulsa, OK 74120 | 918.743.4297
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