Will Michigan Be Next?

Will Michigan be next to strike down a state ban on gay marriage in the new year? So far, federal judges in Utah and Oklahoma have struck down state bans saying they violate the U.S. Constitution’s promise of equal treatment under the law. Before overturning Michigan’s anti-gay amendment, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman said in October that he needed to hear from experts in February.

Judge Friedman is acting on a lawsuit filed by a Detroit lesbian couple who are raising three children. They filed the lawsuit in 2012 with the hopes of striking down a state law that bans same-sex partners from adopting each other’s children. Judge Friedman suggested that they take their case one step further and go after the gay marriage ban, which, if overturned, would overturn the adoption restriction as well.

“This is not the road we thought we’d go down,” Jayne Rowse said in an interview last October. “We thought Judge Friedman would rule one way or the other on second-parent adoption. No one anticipated this. It was out of left field.” Her partner, April DeBoer said the lawsuit was filed because they wanted to protect their three children

Rowse adopted two boys, and DeBoer adopted a girl. The couple, both nurses, adopted the children because they had special needs and/or could not be raised by their birth parents. Under current Michigan law, they can’t adopt each other’s kids because they aren’t married. If either woman died, the other would not be instantly recognized as the legal parent of the remaining children, even if she was nominated at the legal guardian in a Last Will or other supporting documents.

Attorney Dana Nessel, one of the attorneys representing Rowse and DeBoer in the case, has said that Michigan’s ban is one of the more strict bans in the nation because “it also prohibits domestic partnerships or civil unions” thus limiting gay couples in the state from achieving any kind of “legal recognition of their relationships.”
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There is hope that someday soon the state of Michigan will it’s grant LGBT residents the dignity of of having the right to marry the person they choose. Until then, LGBT couples living in Michigan (and most other states) remain without any legal protections whatsoever – unless they go to the effort and expense of getting specific legal documents, i.e., living will and medical power of attorney (to empower a partner to make medical decisions and have hospital visitation rights), last will and testaments and/or living trust (to leave property to a partner) and other supporting documents that empower a partner to make decisions about finances, burial and cremation and many other rights denied to same-sex partners who live in non-marriage equality states.

For the most part, couples who can afford these documents will get them. Many LGBT couples are struggling financially because of the economic downturn. For them, Rainbow Law’s state-specific will and trust packages provide an affordable alternative – and their free advance directives are available to any LGBT person who asks.

If you or anyone you know needs legal documents to empower and protect an LGBT relationship, you really ought to give Rainbow Law a try.