With lesbian and gay couples having married over the past several months in many New Mexico counties, today the state Supreme Court ruled to allow same-sex couples throughout the state to continue making lifelong commitments through marriage. This makes New Mexico the first state in the Southwest with marriage equality and the 17th state nationwide.
“The court is entirely correct that denying lesbian and gay couples the same rights as everyone else is fundamentally unjust,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Regardless of where you live, all people should have the ability to marry the person they love, and now the legislature must not do anything to turn back the clock in the Land of Enchantment.”
As the court wrote: “We hold that the State of New Mexico is constitutionally required to allow same-gender couples to marry and must extend to them the rights, protections, and responsibilities that derive from civil marriage under New Mexico law.”
Marriage Equality USA members and leaders are celebrating the decision. “I was raised in New Mexico, and I have been waiting for marriage equality to become a reality,” said MEUSA member John Hamiga. “I wrote to members of the New Mexico Congressional delegation in support of the freedom to marry during the DOMA debate in 1996. Today I’m celebrating my home state of New Mexico becoming the 17th marriage equality state in the union.”
“The 2013 marriages began when Doña Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins began issuing marriage licenses with the simple declaration: ‘I took an oath to uphold the Constitution.’ Today, the New Mexico Supreme Court has done the same — upheld the Constitution, and fulfilled its promise of fairness and the pursuit of happiness for all,” said MEUSA Executive Director Brian Silva.
MEUSA Legal and Policy Director John Lewis concluded: “County by county, and wedding by wedding, we are seeing couples and clerks and judges bringing to life in their actions the words of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Windsor decision ‘to protect in personhood and dignity,’ not just in marriage but in all aspects of our lives. Justice Kennedy wrote: ‘Responsibilities, as well as rights, enhance the dignity and integrity of the person.’ How fitting that a New Mexico judge then wrote: ‘There is no benefit to the parties or the public interest in having this matter progress through a lengthy path of litigation while basic constitutional rights are being compromised or denied on a daily basis.’ What a wonderful reminder that as we celebrate love and marriage in more states than ever before, in the end the marriage cases are about so much more than marriage – they are about our full humanity.”
