SEATTLE (BP)–Lawyers for several homosexual couples asked a Washington state judge July 27 to overturn the state’s defense of marriage act and legalize same-sex “marriage.”
The judge, William Downing, said he would issue a ruling by Aug. 6, according to The Seattle Times.
The oral arguments before Downing were the first step in a case that likely will end up before the Washington state Supreme Court. It is an example of the strategy homosexual activists are using nationwide — going through state courts, instead of state legislatures, to advance their cause.
Including Washington, eight states are defending their laws against homosexual activist and liberal interest groups suing to legalize homosexual “marriage.” The others are California, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Oregon.
Because of the flood of cases on the state level, pro-family groups are pushing for a marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Unlike Massachusetts — where a court legalized same-sex “marriage” — Washington has a state law specifically banning same-sex “marriage.” Two groups, Lambda Legal and the Northwest Women’s Law Center, filed suit to overturn the ban.
“In order for the [Washington] court to rule in favor of the homosexuals, it would have to say that the Washington Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional — that it violates the state constitution,” Glen Lavy, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, told Baptist Press.
An Alliance Defense Fund-allied attorney, Steve O’Ban, told the judge that the state’s marriage laws help promote procreation.
“Civilization depends on the population replenishing itself,” O’Ban told the judge, according to The Seattle Times. “… The state has an interest in maintaining a clear identification of marriage.”
Lavy said the hearing “went very well.”
“The judge was asking the right questions to show that he clearly understood the issues,” Lavy said.
Bradley H. Bagshaw, an attorney for the same-sex couples, told the judge that the “right to marry is the right to choose whom you want to marry,” The Times reported.
The arguments July 27 were argued in Superior Court, which is the lowest level in Washington’s court system. From there, the case would go to the appeals court and then to the Washington Supreme Court.
The case is Anderson v. King County.
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For more information about the national debate over same-sex “marriage,” visit
http://www.bpnews.net/samesexmarriage
