Seven Same-Sex Couples Sue Nebraska For Freedom To Marry

Seven same-sex couples, including one woman with terminal breast cancer, are suing the State of Nebraska to allow them to marry.

That’s Dr. Tom Maddox and Randy Clark in the photo above. Dr. Maddox was born and raised in Nebraska, and graduated from the University of Nebraska and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. During Tom’s residency in Missouri, he met Randy, a CPA. That was 30 years ago. The couple married in 2008 and live in Missouri but own property in Nebraska, where they visit family regularly.

Susan and Sally Waters live in Omaha, Nebraska. After just one year together, the couple exchanged vows in a marriage ceremony their state does not recognize. In 2008, they were legally married in California. Now, after seventeen years together, they want to have their marriage recognized. Last year, Sally learned she had breast cancer, which is now terminal. They couple have adopted two children. California allowed them to jointly-adopt, but Nebraska does not.

“We have said publicly before God, our family and our friends that we love each other and are committed to one another and our children,” Sally Waters tells her attorneys, the ACLU, the ACLU of Nebraska, and Koenig | Dunne. “At this moment, I want to spend time loving my children and my wife while knowing that should I die, they will be cared for. By not recognizing my family, Nebraska is making a difficult situation much more difficult emotionally and financially.”

In 2000, the people of Nebraska added an amendment to their constitution banning the right to marry from same-sex couples.

Seven Nebraska couples, including Susan and Sally Waters, and Tom Maddox and Randy Clark, are suing to overturn that ban and to win the right to marry.

“These families simply want the security and recognition that only marriage provides,” Amy Miller, legal director of the ACLU of Nebraska said in a statement. “It is wrong for the state to treat these loving and committed couples as second-class citizens. When a family has roots in Nebraska or wants to call Nebraska home, they should be able to do so without being treated as legal strangers.”

33 states recognize or allow same-sex marriage and it is expected the U.S. Supreme Court will accept a marriage case this year or next.

 

Image courtesy ACLU of Nebraska