A federal judge in Detroit has set an October first hearing date for a legal challenge to Michigan’s ban on gay marriage and adoptions by same-sex couples.
As The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Rick Pluta explains, a lesbian couple says the state is violating the civil rights of the three children they are raising together.
Judge Bernard Friedman wants to hear how attorneys for the state and for the couple -- April DeBoer and Jayne Rouse -- think the U-S Supreme Court’s ruling that struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act affects this case.
DeBoer says she and her partner are ready to take their case all the way to the Supreme Court, and if they lose, they will leave the state.
“I think we’ve always discussed that if we do not get rights here in Michigan, that we will be looking to move elsewhere, where our children are protected,” she says.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette says he is defending the Michigan Constitution and the state’s right to set its own rules defining marriage. The same-sex marriage ban in the state constitution was approved by voters nine years ago.