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The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico filed a lawsuit Thursday aimed at forcing state officials to recognize same-sex marriage under current New Mexico law,
The legal action marked yet another effort by advocacy groups to persuade county clerks to issue marriage licenses across the state.
The lawsuit was filed in state district court on behalf of two lesbian couples who sought marriage licenses in Bernalillo County.
It claims the current ban on same-sex marriage violates the New Mexico Constitution. The ACLU-NM said it wants to eventually get the New Mexico Supreme Court to decide the dispute.
“They filed this lawsuit today in the hopes that someday soon no committed, loving same-sex couple will be turned away and excluded from marriage because of the one they love,” said Peter Simonson, executive director of ACLU-NM.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Albuquerque couple Miriam Rand, 63, and Ona Porter, 66, and Santa Fe couple Rose Griego, 47, and Kim Kiel, 44.
Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU of New Mexico, discusses the lawsuit the organization filed on behalf of same-sex couples seeking to be legally married. (Pat vasquez-cunningham/journal)
The lawsuit came as local and state officials argue whether current New Mexico law allows county clerks to issue same-sex marriage licenses.
Santa Fe Mayor David Coss publically encouraged county clerks this week to issue such licenses and said current law allows it.
But clerks in Curry, Doña Ana and Santa Fe counties said state law doesn’t let them issue same-sex marriage licenses and they won’t do so without an opinion from state Attorney General Gary King.
Phil Sisneros, a spokesman for King, said the attorney general has not seen the lawsuit and couldn’t comment.
State Rep. Bill McCamley, D-Las Cruces, has asked King to issue on opinion on the matter.
“We will be working as expeditiously as possible to formulate a response” to the request, Sisneros said.
The lawsuit was the latest in the long fight for same-sex marriage in one of the most Catholic states in the nation.
In 2004, a Sandoval County clerk issued 64 licenses to same-sex couples but then-Attorney General Patricia Madrid soon declared the licenses were invalid. A court later ordered the clerk to not issue such licenses.
Porter said at a news conference Thursday that the lawsuit came just a few weeks after she and Rand celebrated their 25th anniversary as a couple.
“Without the legal ties of marriage, it would have been easy for either of us to cut and run,” Porter said. “We did not. Not because we are heroic or martyrs but because we are a family … loving, committed and responsible.”
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal
