Oklahoma marriage equality plaintiffs say ban is "demeaning" to gay families

A brief filed yesterday on behalf of the plaintiffs suing to overturn the same-sex marriage ban in Oklahoma states that the ban is demeaning to gay couples and their families.

The argument came in a 102-page document filed Monday on behalf of Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

Bishop and Baldwin, who have been together for more than 15 years, are suing to be allowed to marry in Oklahoma. Their attorneys argue in the filing that the ban "demeans and humiliates these couples and their children, conveying to them, to family, to friends, to neighbors, to classmates, to teachers, to colleagues, to employers, to officials, to governments, and to all the world that their relationships are unworthy and second-tier," the document stated.

The filing came in response to a brief filed last month by the Alliance Defending Freedom that said legalizing gay marriage would harm children, undermine society and make traditional marriages unstable.

In January a federal judge ruled that Oklahoma's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, but he stayed his ruling.

Oklahoma's marriage equality ban was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge in January.

Oral arguments for the appeal in the Tenth Circuit Court are scheduled for April 10th.