Meet More Of the Couples Suing Illinois for the Freedom to Marry: VIDEO

This morning I mentioned that the ACLU and Lambda Legal today each filed a lawsuit suing the state of Illinois on behalf of several couples seeking the freedom to marry. I also shared a video from the ACLU featuring one of the couples, together for 48 years.

Lambda Legal has put out a great video introducing the couples they are representing.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

You can find out more about their case, and dig deeper into the couples' stories HERE.

ACLU, Lambda Legal, and 25 Couples Sue for Equal Marriage Rights in Illinois

Later today, Lambda Legal and the ACLU will file lawsuits in Illinois demanding legal marriage rights for gay couples, the Chicago Tribune reports:

A total of 25 couples from across the state are plaintiffs in the two lawsuits. Each couple tried to get a marriage license from the Cook County clerk's office in May and was denied based on the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, which prohibits marriage "between 2 individuals of the same sex" and states: "A marriage between 2 individuals of the same sex is contrary to the public policy of this State."

The lawsuit will be announced at a press conference today at 10:30am in Chicago, according to an email Towleroad received from Lambda Legal.

The Tribune adds:

The gay rights group Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois each plan to file a lawsuit Wednesday against the clerk of Cook County, claiming that not issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the Illinois Constitution.

Activists say they will continue to press lawmakers to legalize same-sex marriage. But these lawsuits mean that the judicial system, and possibly the Illinois Supreme Court, will play a role as well.

"We always thought this was something that had to happen," said ACLU attorney John Knight. "We think it's time to try in the courts, and we're optimistic about our chances."

"We feel like we're at a tipping point," said Camilla Taylor, a Lambda Legal attorney who headed up a similar case that led to the legalization of gay marriage in Iowa. "You reach a point where you can no longer tell these families that they should hold off. You lack the justification when we reach a national moment, when it's clear that our time is now."

The Chicago Sun-Times adds:

The planned lawsuits will make some of the same arguments that worked in Iowa: equal protection under the law and due process. The ACLU case will argue that the right to privacy in Illinois’ Constitution protects against a ban on gay marriage. California’s constitution had a similar right to privacy cited by that state’s high court in upholding a right to same-sex marriage. That law is under review in federal appellate court.

Lambda also argues that Illinois’ ban on “special legislation” that benefits one group over another prohibits a ban on same-sex marriage.

Chicago Police Det. Tanya Lazaro, 36, and her partner Liz Matos, 40, are one of the couples filing suit — Sun Times.

A marriage equality bill introduced in the Illinois legislature earlier this year isn't likely to see movement, as we noted in April.

Student Can Wear 'Jesus Is Not A Homophobe' Shirt

Lambda Legal scored a nice win in Waynesville, Ohio, where high school student Maverick Couch was threatened with suspension for wearing a "Jesus Is Not A Homophobe" shirt.

Couch first wore the shirt last year and was asked by his principal, Randy Gebhardt, to remove it, which he did. Then, as the latest school year began, the student asked if he could wear it again. He was denied and threatened with detention. That's when Lambda Legal got involved.

The legal group has more information on the case:

Lambda Legal sent Gebhardt a letter in January outlining the legal precedent supporting Maverick’s right to wear the shirt. The school district responded that “the message communicated by the student’s T-shirt is sexual in nature and therefore indecent and inappropriate in a school setting.” Lambda Legal sued the school district on Maverick’s behalf on April 3. The next day, the school conceded that Couch could wear the shirt—but only on one day: the Day of Silence.

Today's ruling says that Couch can wear the shirt any day he chooses. "Plaintiff is expressly permitted to wear the “Jesus Is Not A Homophobe” T-shirt to school when he chooses," the ruling reads.

Said Lambda Legal senior staff attorney Christopher Clark: "If school officials had any doubt before, it’s clear now: First Amendment rights apply to all students on every day of the year, and efforts to silence LGBT youth will not go unchallenged."

And Couch of course is thrilled, as well, "The shirt is a statement of pride, and I hope other students like me know that they can be proud, too."

In addition to being ordered to let Couch wear his shirt, the school must also pay him $20,000 for legal fees.

Here's a PDF of the ruling.

'Jesus Is Not a Homophobe': Identity Harassment and First Amendment Rights at School

BY ARI EZRA WALDMAN

Twice last week, we heard about public school administrators who silenced the pro-gay expression of their students. At Fullerton High School in Orange County, California, an assistant principal disqualified Kearian Giertz from participating in the school's Mr. Fullerton Pageant after that student answered the stock question -- "Where do you see yourself in 10 years?" -- with some refreshing candor: After saying he wanted to fall in love with the man of his dreams, Mr. Giertz hoped that "10 years from now gay marriage will be legal in California."

And, last year, a high school principal in Waynesville, Ohio (near Cincinnati) banned Maverick Couch from wearing a t-shirt that read, "Jesus is Not a Homophobe," to school. Lambda Legal's Christopher Clark and local pro bono counsel Lisa Meeks have sued Maverick's high school, claiming the principal's refusal to permit Maverick's pro-gay expression violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Fullerton administrators have apologized, admitting only that the principal acted inappropriately. Waynesville leaders just made a tiny concession to Maverick, likely the result of the nudge from Lambda Legal. The school still called Maverick's speech "sexual" in nature. But, it's hard to see how a Christian message of love is sexual, unless you believe that all words that begin with "homo" are toxic, engendering stereotypical images of sex, sweat, and sodomy. Fullerton and Waynesville officials are wrong: Kearian's and Maverick's statements were Constitutionally protected conduct, not something to be addressed in private or only permitted on one day per year.

These cases demand that we think about the implications of our pro-Maverick and pro-Kearian positions: If we affirm Maverick's First Amendment right to say that "Jesus is Not a Homophobe" in a public school, must that freedom extend to his counter-protester who wears a t-shirt that says, "Be Happy, Not Gay" or "Homosexuality is Shameful" or "Be Ashamed, Our School Embraced What God Has Condemned" or "Straight Power"? If we believe that free speech is a limit on the state's power to silence any legitimate speech, it seems like we must accept the hateful bully alongside the tolerant messenger. It is, after all, a free country where Thomas Paine might disagree with us, but fight to the death for our right to express that disagreement free of censure. I would like to offer another option: Under the Supreme Court’s student speech jurisprudence, school discipline of identity-based aggressors is consistent with student First Amendment rights and need not silence pro-tolerance and pro-acceptance speech.

CONTINUED, AFTER THE JUMP...

Federal Lawsuit Filed Seeking Marriage Equality in Nevada

Lambda Legal has filed a federal suit on behalf of eight gay couples in the state of Nevada, seeking marriage rights in the state, according to a scoop from Chris Geidner at MetroWeekly:

The lawsuit, Sevcik v. Sandoval, marks the first time that Lambda Legal has sought equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples in federal court, although a staff attorney with the group, Tara Borelli, notes that another case filed by Lambda Legal in state court in New Jersey includes federal claims as well.

According to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, the lead plaintiffs in the new lawsuit -- Beverly Sevcik, 73, and Mary Baranovich, 76, of Carson City, Nevada -- have been together for more than 40 years. As the complaint notes, "When Beverly and Mary committed their lives to each other on October 2, 1971 and bought rings to signify their relationship, they were careful not to purchase matching rings for fear of having their relationship discovered."

The couple, nonetheless, went on to raise three children and have four grandchildren, despite the constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2000 and 2002 limiting marriage in the state's constitution to "a male and a female person." Same-sex couples have been able to receive many of the same benefits and privileges of marriage but not the status itself, however, since the legislature passed comprehensive domestic partnership benefits over the veto of then-Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) in 2009.

The legal group sees this lawsuit as a strategic step, in a state that permits domestic partnership:

Explaining the claim, Borelli says, "One of the reasons that we're suing in the state of Nevada is that this is a particular equal protection problem that this case examines. It's the kind of problem created where a state excludes same-sex couples from marriage deems them fit for all of the rights and responsibilities of marriage through a lesser, second-class status -- in this case, domestic partnership. That shows just how irrational that state's decision is to shut same-sex couples out of marriage."

In fact, Lambda Legal -- with assistance from pro bono co-counsel from O'Melveny & Myers LLP and Snell & Wilmer LLP -- has decided only to pursue an equal protection claim relating to the different treatment same-sex couples receive in Nevada and not a due process claim relating to the "fundamental right" to marriage. Both claims were raised in the Perry lawsuit.

Lambda Legal also acknowledged the precedent of AFER's lawsuit challenging Proposition 8 as a vital precedent for their work here.

Lambda Legal Files Federal Lawsuit Seeking Marriage Equality in Nevada [metro weekly]

Lambda Legal Sues Ohio School Over Student's 'Jesus is Not a Homophobe' T-Shirt

Lambda Legal sued the the Waynesville School District today on behalf of Maverick Couch, a high school student who wore a T-shirt with a rainbow Ichthys and a slogan reading “Jesus Is Not a Homophobe” in observation of the National Day of Silence.

Lambda Legal outlines its complaint:

The school principal, Mr. Randy Gebhardt, called Maverick into his office and instructed him to turn the T-shirt inside out; Maverick complied. Maverick went home and conducted some research and concluded he should have the right to wear the T-shirt, and wore it again the following day. He was again summoned to the principal’s office, his mother was called into the school, and was told to remove the T-shirt or face suspension; Maverick again complied. Over the summer, Maverick further researched his First Amendment rights, and when school resumed in the fall of 2011, he approached the school principal seeking permission to wear the T-shirt. Mr. Gebhardt restated that he would be suspended if he wore the shirt.

In January 2012, Lambda Legal sent a letter to Mr. Gebhardt outlining the legal precedent supporting Maverick’s right to wear the shirt, to which the school district issued the response, “…the message communicated by the student’s T-shirt is sexual in nature and therefore indecent and inappropriate in a school setting.” On April 3, 2012, Lambda Legal filed suit against the Wayne Local School District on Maverick’s behalf, arguing that the Waynesville School District violated the First Amendment and well-settled legal precedent supporting students’ free speech.

More informatino on the case can be found at Lambda Legal's site.