HELENA — Four gay couples filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging Montana’s ban on same-sex marriage, making North Dakota and South Dakota the only states left with similar prohibitions and no lawsuits seeking to overturn them.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Great Falls alleges the state’s constitutional ban denies same-sex couples the freedom and dignity afforded to other Montanans, and robs them of the legal protections and benefits that come with marriage.
“We want Aden to grow up knowing that we are a family like any other family,” plaintiff Shauna Goubeaux said in a statement of her and wife Nicole’s 1-year-old son. “Marriage is part of being a family. By being plaintiffs in this case, we are showing him his mommies will stand up for what is right and stand up for him.”
Montana’s Republican attorney general, Tim Fox, will fight to uphold the ban, his spokesman John Barnes said.
“Attorney General Fox will continue to defend Montana’s marriage amendment vigorously,” Barnes told The Associated Press.
Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock, meanwhile, released a statement in support of the couples.
“Montanans cherish our freedom and recognize the individual dignity of every one of us,” Bullock said. “The time has come for our state to recognize and celebrate – not discriminate against – two people who love one another, are committed to each other, and want to spend their lives together.”
The other plaintiffs are Angie and Tonya Rolando; Ben Milano and Chase Weinhandl; and Sue Hawthorne and Adel Johnson. The Goubeauxes, the Weinhandls, and Hawthorne and Johnson all were married in other states.
Johnson said she should have the same rights as other married people. She and Hawthorne were married in January in Washington state. But as a fourth-generation Montanan, Johnson would like to wed in her home state.
“I would love to get married here,” she said.
State marriage bans have been falling around the country since the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
After Montana’s lawsuit, only North Dakota and South Dakota remain as having gay marriage bans that are not under review, according to the Human Rights Campaign. However, gay couples in those states say they are planning to file legal challenges soon.
Montana voters in 2004 approved a state constitutional amendment providing that only a marriage between one man and one woman was valid or recognized as a marriage in the state.
Jeff Laszloffy of the Montana Family Foundation, which led the effort to pass the amendment, said the lawsuit was not unexpected given the challenges to similar bans around the country.
“We just believe the people spoke clearly when they passed the initiative in 2004 by 70 percent,” he said. “Marriage should never be treated as a politically correct social experiment. It is a vital, time-tested institution, and for the sake of our kids it should be reinforced, not redefined.”
Laszloffy said the group plans to file briefs in the case in support of the ban.
An attorney for the couples, Elizabeth Gill of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that it is time for Montana to “join the march toward equality for all loving and committed couples across the country.”
Montana ACLU Legal Director Jim Taylor said that if the case moves quickly, it could take nine months to a year before a decision is reached.
“We definitely believe the time for this is now,” Taylor said.