A partial win, but the rest will follow.
A federal judge here granted a preliminary injunction Friday against the state’s ban on same-sex marriage in certain instances.
In October three same-sex couples filed a lawsuit asking the state to recognize their marriages that had been performed in states where gay marriage is legal. The four couples taking part in the suit were living and had been married in New York or California but had moved to Tennessee.
“At this point, all signs indicate that, in the eyes of the United States Constitution, the plaintiffs’ marriages will be placed on an equal footing with those of heterosexual couples and that proscriptions against same-sex marriage will soon become a footnote in the annals of American history,” Judge Aleta Trauger wrote in the order.
Friday’s U.S. District Court ruling applies only to these three couples.
Nashville lawyer Abby Rubenfeld, who represents the couples, cheered the legal win and said it was a good first step toward total equality for all same-sex married couples in Tennessee.
Buzzfeed has the opinion, which leaned heavily on the one in Kentucky that made the same ruling. The Tennessean has more about the lawsuit and the couples that were the plaintiffs. The next step is a lawsuit to overturn Tennessee’s anti-gay marriage amendment, and there’s been no trouble recruiting more plaintiffs for that. Another step forward for equality, and another step towards the inevitable at the national level.