Court Tosses Cherokee
Gay - Marriage Case
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, August 4, 2005
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. Aug.3 -- A
Cherokee Nation court has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the tribe from
giving its legal blessing to a lesbian couple's marriage.
The Judicial Appeals Tribunal in its ruling Wednesday said that tribe member and
attorney Todd Hembree had no standing to sue and could not show that he suffered
any harm by legal recognition of the same-sex marriage.
Dawn McKinley and Kathy Reynolds haven't decided whether they will try again to
file their tribal marriage certificate. Since the tribe is sovereign,
Cherokee Nation marriage certificates are recognized just like Oklahoma marriage
licenses.
The couple, who are both members of the tribe, exchanged vows in Cherokee in May
2004 after the tribe gave them the certificate without protest. But
Hembree sued and won an injunction that kept it from being filed.
After the couple wed, the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council unanimously approved
language defining a union as between one man and one woman.
Previously, tribal laws governing marriages used Cherokee terms for ''husband''
and ''wife'' that Hembree claimed were gender-specific. The couple
contended the terms were not gender specific, and that the Cherokee words used
in the marriage ceremony are ''cooker'' for wife and ''companion'' for husband.
The court would still have to accept the certificate before it is filed.
''We're excited, we're happy,'' Reynolds said. ''We're determining what
our next step is going to be.''
Hembree, who serves as counsel to the tribe's legislative body, said the court's
decision ends the case for him: ''That is a decision by the highest court
in our land.''
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