By RICKY KERR
Hays Post
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that all 50 states must authorize and recognize gay and lesbian marriages will go down in history as a major turning point in the ongoing fight for LGBT civil rights. For the first time in American history, states are required to provide and recognize marriage licenses regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity of the two partners.
For Natalie McCall and Carrie Nassif, Ellis County residents, the decision was surprising.
“I didn’t really think it was going to happen so I was pretty surprised,” Nassif said. “I was kind of, I think, in a state of shock for a while. I don’t think it really sunk in because, like I said, I wasn’t expecting it to go that way.”
The couple drove to Des Moines, Iowa, five years ago to get married under an Iowa state license. Now, with the recent Supreme Court ruling, the state of Kansas will have no choice but to recognize their marriage.
“Kansas actually never recognized our marriage but we were the first same-sex couple, we’re assuming,” McCall said. “Because I had my name changed back to my maiden name through our marriage license and so when I went to the Social Security Administration it took them a while to figure out what was going on and finally they came up and asked me in a whisper ‘is this a same-sex marriage?’ and I was like ‘yes’ and they didn’t know any better so they went ahead and switched my name with the marriage license. We have heard a lot of reports from people now that are not able to switch their names through that so…it benefited us to be one of the first people in Ellis County to attempt that.”
The court ruling will allow the couple to receive a number of benefits heterosexual married couples currently enjoy.
“The first, most relevant (benefit) is when we file taxes,” Nassif said. “We had to file as a married couple federally and as two individuals for the state. I feel so bad for our tax preparer because she’d have to run through a lot of programs and erase this part and add this part, so I think that’s (filing taxes as a married couple in Kansas) going to be lovely.”
While the court ruling chalks up as a win for civil rights activists, more work still needs to be done to ensure protections against discrimination in the work place.
“Most people are either really excited or really irritated with the decision,” McCall said. “I think the people that are really irritated are just going to get more irritated because we still have a long way to go. I’m fortunate enough to work for a company that won’t fire me based on my sexual orientation but not a lot of people are that lucky, so there’s probably a lot of people who got fired today when they got to work.”
Legislation barring state agencies from firing anyone based on sexual orientation enacted by former Democratic Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has since been repealed by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.
Brownback has vehemently defended the Kansas constitution’s limited definition of marriage.“Activist courts should not overrule the people of this state, who have clearly supported the Kansas constitution’s definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman,” said Brownback on Friday. “We will review the ruling carefully to understand its effects on the people of Kansas.”
McCall and Nassif had already made plans that emulated many of the benefits they will now be able to take full advantage of.
“We’d already kind of planned to make sure the house title is in both of our names,” Nassif said. “We’ve already tried to take some precautions to make sure that we’re taken care of if one of us were to (pass away), and our kids are taken care of, but it’s really nice to just have (our marriage) sanctioned and not questioned anymore.”
McCall and Nassif responded to the notion held by some people that their marriage is immoral.
“I think (that’s) an interesting argument,” McCall said, “since that argument comes from a religious background usually, and that is not relevant to the state and the Supreme Court.”
“I think a lot of the backlash is from some folks whose religious beliefs disagree with it, but then they don’t have to,” Nassif said. “Their rights have been protected…with freedom of religion, so if they don’t want to have (single-sex marriage) ceremonies in their churches, they don’t have to. But as far as legal status, that should be separate, and I’m really glad that it’s finally recognized. I think a lot of people felt like interracial marriage was immoral too, so I think that the times will change.”
For the full video interview with Nassif and McCall, see above.