Same-sex couples sue Wyoming over marriage laws

Cheyenne -- In a first-ever challenge of Wyoming’s laws on marriage, the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed suit Wednesday on behalf of four same-sex couples and the gay rights advocacy group Wyoming Equality.

The lawsuit challenges Wyoming’s ban on same-sex marriage and the state's refusal to recognize same-sex marriages in other states, arguing that current law violates the Wyoming Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process.

Wyoming is one of 33 states where gay marriage isn’t recognized, but a growing tide of support is working to reverse the state’s outlook on the issue.

Advocates who mobilized to file the lawsuit are hoping the First Judicial District Court will either set a precedent to allow gay marriage or pave the way for beginning an appeals process that will lead to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

The couples suing are Cora Courage and Wyoma “Nonie” Proffit, of Evanston; Carl Oleson and Rob Johnston, of Casper; Anne Guzzo and Bonnie Robinson, of Laramie; and Ivan Williams and Chuck Killion, of Cheyenne.

“Wyoming has a proud history of being the Equality State, and its refusal to allow same-sex couples to marry is contrary to the core values of our state,” said Jeran Artery, chairman of Wyoming Equality. “The couples in this case, and all same-sex couples in Wyoming, deserve to be treated with equal fairness and respect, including having the same freedom to marry that others enjoy.”

Courage and Proffit live on a ranch outside Evanston. Courage is the clinical director at the Wyoming State Hospital and a major in the Army Reserve. Proffit herds sheep, authored a book on Uinta County and works at the Uinta County Library.

Courage served two tours in Afghanistan, one in Iraq and one in Kosovo. Before she left for her final Afghan tour in 2009, she and Proffit rushed to Iowa to get legally married.

The law known as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was still in effect in the military. But after the marriage, Courage told her superiors that she was in a same-sex relationship.

“I wanted it to be in my personnel file just in case anything happened,” Courage said.

She wasn’t punished or reprimanded for her honesty.

“All they said was that she doesn’t legally qualify as a dependent,” she said. “I have never had any adverse action against me.”

The military and the federal government now recognize Courage’s marriage.

It’s unfair that Wyoming doesn’t, she said.

“For the state not to recognize our marriage is discriminatory,” she said. “It doesn’t provide equal protection that other married couples have afforded to them.”

Proffit grew up on the ranch in Evanston. She’s been openly gay for 19 years. When she moved back to Wyoming after college, she said she wasn’t quiet about her sexual orientation and hasn’t been since.

“I am not hiding at all,” she said. “I refuse to be dishonest. I can’t lie about that. I was raised with honesty and fair play. There is an inequality in the way the law is written right now. It goes against everything we believe in Wyoming. The law needs (to be) repaired.”

Guzzo is a professor at the University of Wyoming and a native of the state.

“As much as I love this state, it is frustrating to live in the Equality State and to be treated differently by the government because of who I love,” she said in a media release. “It scares me that in times of crisis we will have to rely on the kindness of strangers to respect our relationship because the state of Wyoming will not let Bonnie and me share in the responsibilities and protections of marriage.”

The lawsuit comes one day after Sen. Alan Simpson and three Republican state lawmakers filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver in an effort to revoke Utah’s ban on gay marriage.

The Utah lawsuit is aimed at the other half of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling from June that declared a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, saying it violated the right to liberty and equal protection.

The court’s decision didn’t tackle the issue of a person’s right to marry, which is what the appeals court will address.

In Wyoming, attempts to pass same-sex marriage and civil unions in the past few years have failed. But the first attempt in the court should either lay the groundwork for a law or provide a legal precedent.

With the state Supreme Court’s acceptance of same-sex divorces in 2011, the court’s approval of same sex marriage seems like the logical next step, said Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, a signer of the brief and supporter of the lawsuit.

“For years we’ve been pushing for a legislative solution geared toward civil unions knowing an eventual full-fledged challenge to our marriage statute was forthcoming,” he said. “Based on arguments heard in other jurisdictions and our statutory allowance of same-sex recognition of other countries, I fully expect the state Supreme Court to allow same-sex marriage.”

by Kyle Roerink, (Casper, WY) Star-Tribune staff writer

The Gayly – March 6, 2014 @ 10am