The American Civil Liberties Union has updated its challenge to Kansas’s ban on same sex marriage to prevent the state from ignoring marriages performed in and out of state. The revised lawsuit is looking to require the state to extend insurance and taxes benefits to gay and lesbian married couples as well as allow them to legally change their names on identification to reflect their unions. The original suit was filed on the behalf of a single lesbian couple who were not granted marriage licenses in two different counties. The suit now adds an additional three couples agitating to have their marriages recognized.
Previously, Kansas governor Sam Brownback publicly asserted his refusal to grant gay couples the same marital benefits afforded to their straight counterparts.
"We are very disappointed the state has continued to play this obstruction game," said ACLU attorney Doug Bonney. "The time is here to recognize the marriages as valid and lawful just like any other marriage.”
Secretary of the Kansas Department of Revenue, Nick Jordan; director of the division of Vehicles, Lisa Kaspar; and director of the State Employee Health Plan have been added as defendants following the ACLU’s new revision. According to the lawsuit the each of the newly added defendants represents a Kansas agency responsible for discriminating against same sex married couples.
