A case challenging Georgia's ban on gay
marriage moves to an appeals court after a federal judge refused the
state's request to stay the case until the Supreme Court rules in
four similar cases.
U.S. District Judge William Duffey
handed down a partial ruling on January 8. Duffey denied a motion
from the state to dismiss the case but also found that the ban did
not violate the Fourteenth Amendment.
The case will join others from Alabama
and Florida currently before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in
Atlanta.
The case, Innis v. Aderhold, was
announced in April at a press conference organized by Lambda Legal.
Christopher Inniss and Shelton Stroman
of Snellville, an Atlanta suburb, are the lead plaintiffs in the
case. The men have been together 13 years and are raising their
9-year-old adopted son, Jonathan.
In 2006, the Georgia Supreme Court
ruled valid Georgia's 2004 voter-approved constitutional amendment
which defines marriages as a heterosexual union and prohibits the
state from recognizing the out-of-state legal marriages of gay
couples.
(Read
the order, provided by Equality
Case Files.)