OKLAHOMA CITY — Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a friend-of-the-court brief Monday defending Oklahoma law in the case
O’Darling v. O’Darling, in which a same-sex couple is seeking a “divorce” even though marriage is legally defined in the state constitution as a union between one man and one woman. According to the brief, the court cannot dissolve a “marriage” that is not in fact a marriage in the state of Oklahoma.
“Marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Everything else is counterfeit. By attempting to obtain a same-sex ‘divorce,’ these two women are attempting to establish indirectly what they could not establish directly; that is, same-sex ‘marriage.’ And same-sex ‘marriage’ is contrary to the law in Oklahoma,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Austin Nimocks.
Seventy-six percent of the state’s voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2004 protecting marriage between one man and one woman. Oklahoma’s marriage amendment also stipulates that same-sex “marriages” performed in other states would not be recognized as valid and binding in the state of Oklahoma.
Cait O’Darling and Stephanie A. Griffith , the same-sex couple seeking a “divorce” in Oklahoma, allege that they were “married” in Toronto, Canada, in December of 2002, though that is about 6 months before same-sex “marriage” became legal in Toronto. In filing for their “divorce,” the couple provided no proof of a “marriage.” Not knowing that they were two women, an Oklahoma judge initially granted them a divorce decree.
Later, the judge vacated the divorce decree and dismissed the case upon discovering that the couple was not a man and a woman. The judge wrote, “Oklahoma, by statute, does not recognize as valid or binding in this state…any marriage between persons of the same gender….” Cait O’Darling appealed the case to the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, challenging the state’s marriage statute as unconstitutional.
“By a margin of more than 3-to-1, the people of Oklahoma voted to protect marriage as a union between one man and one woman,” said Nimocks. “By demanding that the court dissolve this counterfeit ‘marriage,’ these women are telling the court to ignore the laws of Oklahoma. The opponents of marriage aren’t merely trying to redefine marriage, they’re trying to eliminate marriage.”
A copy of the friend-of-the-court brief filed with the Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma can be read at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/O'DarlingAmicus.pdf.
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