From Think Progress: http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/07/23/2341031/michigan-governor-denies-that-same-sex-families-are-deprived-of-any-rights/
By Zack Ford
on Jul 23, 2013
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and Attorney General Bill Schuette (R) have filed their formal response to a suit by a lesbian couple challenging the state’s amendment banning same-sex marriage. The couple are raising three special-needs children together but are prohibited from adopting each other’s children and becoming a unified family. The state had originally requested the case be dismissed out right, but a federal judge rejected that request, suggesting in the days after the Defense of Marriage Act was overturned that the couple had a viable case.
Snyder and Schuette’s filing responds line-by-line to the couple’s brief, repeatedly denying that April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse are a family since each of their children can only call one of them a legal guardian. For every example of a right and protection the couple argues they are excluded from, such as protections related to the death of a spouse, public and private safety nets for families, and health care decisions, the state argues that these claims are simply “untrue” and that the family has “not been adversely treated.”
Only briefly does the state explain how it intends to defend the ban on same-sex marriage::
Continue reading at: http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/07/23/2341031/michigan-governor-denies-that-same-sex-families-are-deprived-of-any-rights/
