The recent decisions on Utah’s same-sex marriage has put many homogenous couples in a legal limbo.
A gay couple, Matthew Barraza and Tony Milner, who are struggling hard to seek parenting rights for their 4-year-old child, joined the lawsuit filed on Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union suing Utah over its decision not to recognize the gay marriages.
“The halt on same sex marriages is preventing the couples from getting key protections for themselves and their children,” the lawsuit says.
Expressing disappointment over the supreme court’s decision, Milner said, “Heaven forbid, if something should happen to one of us. Jesse would have the security of having the other parent take care of him. Now, because of the state’s refusal to recognize our marriage, this peace of mind is once again out of reach.”
A federal judge’s decision to overturn same-sex marriage ban in the state allowed this gay couple to marry each other and become proud parent of their 4-year-old adopted child.
Soon after the federal court gave green signal to the gay marriage, the couple moved quickly to get adoption paperwork started so that Barazza’s little boy Jesse could have both of his parents recognized.
But things took bad shape when the U.S. Supreme Court brought gay marriages to a standstill by halting the lower court’s judgement. Following the verdict, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert instructed the state agencies to stop granting such homogenous couples new benefits.
This decision of the apex court has left Barraza and Milner halfway like hundreds of newly married gay and lesbian couples in Utah.
After a federal judge in Utah overturned the state’s gay marriage ban on December 20, more than 1,000 same sex couples rushed to marry each other. However, much to the disappointment of many, those weddings came to a halt on January 6 when the Supreme Court granted Utah an emergency stay.
