Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the City of Chicago today joined Mayors for the Freedom to Marry and the U.S. Conference of Mayors in filing a friend of the Court (amicus) brief expressing their support of marriage equality for same-sex couples, and urging the Supreme Court to reverse the federal court of appeals’ ruling that gays and lesbians, unlike other residents, have no fundamental right to marry.
“The journey toward marriage equality is about being true to our core American values of treating everyone equally under the law and celebrating the diversity that has always made us a stronger,” said Mayor Emanuel. “I am proud that today in the City of Chicago, there is no more gay marriage or straight marriage; there is only marriage between two people who love each other. But the struggle will not be over until every American regardless of where they live has the same rights and protections to marry, regardless of whom they love.”
Some 226 mayors and 40 cities have signed on to the amicus brief, which calls on the Supreme Court to make marriage a fundamental right that applies equally to both same-sex and different-sex couples, and across state lines. The brief argues that excluding or denying gays and lesbians from the right to marry approves of discrimination against gay and lesbian residents, denies same-sex couples and their children the stability and economic protections that marriage provides, reinforces social stigma of gays and lesbians and same-sex couples, and makes it difficult for municipalities to treat their residents with equal dignity and respect. Further, the brief states that marriage equality should be legally recognized uniformly by every state, not be put in the hands of state voters. The brief underscores that, without these protections, gay and lesbian couples and their children will be at risk when traveling or moving to another state, as the rights and protections afforded them in the state where they were married are dissolved upon entry to a state that denies or limits such rights.