Lawsuit challenges Georgia’s same-sex marriage ban
Three couples and a widow on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit challenging Georgia’s ban against same-sex marriage.
The suit will ask a federal judge in Atlanta to find that the ban, ratified as a constitutional amendment by voters in 2004, denies equal protection to gays and lesbians who want to get married here.
The plaintiffs include two Atlanta Police officers and a Snellville couple who own a pet daycare center. Also joining the suit were two Atlanta men — a lawyer and a Realtor — and a Decatur woman whose partner died March 1 after a long struggle with ovarian cancer.
“We need the protection that marriage affords,” said Christopher Inniss, a veterinarian and pet resort owner. Inniss, 39, wants to marry his partner of 13 years, Shelton Stroman, 42. They have a 9-year-old son.
“We own a home together, we own a business together and we are raising our son, Jonathan, together,” Inniss said. “We have done everything we can to protect and take responsibility for our family but marriage is the only way to ensure that we are treated as the family that we are.”
Beth Littrell, senior attorney for Lambda Legal, said her organization decided to file the Georgia lawsuit after a number of federal judges nationwide struck down same-sex marriage bans in other states.
“Momentum is behind us,” Littrell said. “There is an unbroken string of successes in the federal courts. … It’s discrimination, pure and simple, and it’s wrong.”
Lambda Legal is joined in the litigation by two other law firms, Bryan Cave LLP of Washington and White & Case from Miami.
The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed against state Registrar and Director of Records Deborah Aderhold, a Fulton County Probate Court judge and the clerk of the Gwinnett County Probate Court.
Last June’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that married same-sex couples were entitled to federal benefits has eased the path for proponents of gay marriage. Justice Antonin Scalia predicted as much in his dissent, saying the court’s majority “arms well every challenge to a state law restricting marriage to its traditional definition.”
Stroman and Inniss said many want to know why they haven’t tied the knot in a state where gay marriage is legal.
“We have friends who’ve gone to New York or wherever to get married, but to us it’s like you were married for a weekend then you’re not when you come back,” Inniss said. “This is our home, and this is where we want to marry.”
The other plaintiffs are:
- Rayshawn Chandler, 29, and Avery Chandler, 30, of Jonesboro. Both women are Atlanta Police officers and Avery Chandler is a sergeant in the Army Reserves and scheduled to deploy to Kuwait this summer. Their marriage last year in Connecticut is not recognized in Georgia.
- Michael Bishop, 50, and Shane Thomas, 44, of Atlanta. Bishop is a lawyer at AT&T and Thomas is a Realtor who served in the Air National Guard. They are raising a 5-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter.
- Jennifer Sisson, 34, of Decatur. On Valentine's Day in 2013, Sisson married her longtime partner, Pamela Drenner, in New York at City Hall. After Drenner died in March, the state did not recognize their marriage on Drenner's death certificate.
About the Author
Bill Rankin has been an AJC reporter for more than 30 years. His father, Jim Rankin, worked as an editor for the newspaper for 26 years, retiring in 1986. Bill has primarily covered the state’s court system, doing all he can do to keep the scales of justice on an even keel. Since 2015, he has been the host of the newspaper’s Breakdown podcast.
