同性愛者の支援団体、米マサチューセッツ州司法長官を告訴

　１月３日、同性愛者の支援弁護士らは同性婚を認めた判決をくつがえすことを目的とした住民投票を阻止するため、米マサチューセッツ州の司法長官を告訴。写真は昨年９月、州議事堂前でデモ行進する同性婚擁護者（２００６年　ロイター/Jessica Rinaldi）

同性愛者の支援団体、米マサチューセッツ州司法長官を告訴
2006年 01月 4日 水曜日 15:50 JST

　［ボストン　３日　ロイター］　同性愛者の支援弁護士らは３日、同性愛者同士の結婚を認めた判決をくつがえすことを目的とした住民投票を阻止するため、米マサチューセッツ州の司法長官を告訴した。

　同州は、同性愛者同士の結婚を合法とした米国唯一の州。

　同性愛者の支援団体、Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders（ＧＬＡＤ）は、昨年９月にマサチューセッツ州のライリー司法長官が、有権者が２００８年の投票により結婚を男女間で行われるものと再定義できると決めたのは間違いだと主張。住民投票で裁判所の決定をくつがえすことは、州憲法違反だとしている。

　司法長官の事務所は、長官の判断は法に適っているとする一方で、長官自身は同性婚の禁止を好んでいるわけではないと述べた。

　マサチューセッツ州最高裁は２００３年、同性愛者同士の結婚を禁止するのは憲法違反にあたると判断。翌年５月、同性愛者同士の結婚を合法とした。

　同州ではこれまでに、約７０００人の同性愛者が結婚した。

　米国では１９の州で、州憲法により同性婚が禁じられている。

Massachusetts sued over gay marriage ruling
Tue Jan 3, 2006 04:08 PM ET
By Jason Szep

BOSTON (Reuters) - Gay rights lawyers filed on Tuesday a lawsuit to stop a proposed ballot measure aimed at overturning a court decision that made Massachusetts the first and only U.S. state to legalize gay marriage.

The lawsuit by the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) said the state's attorney general erred when he ruled in September that Massachusetts voters could decide in a 2008 poll to redefine marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

They said the decision by Thomas Reilly, a Democrat who is likely to run for governor this year, was unconstitutional because ballot initiatives cannot reverse judicial decisions under the state's Constitution.

"The attorney general simply got it wrong," Gary Buseck, GLAD's legal director, said in a statement.

Reilly's office said his decision was legally sound, adding that Reilly does not personally favor banning same-sex marriage.

Massachusetts' highest court ruled in 2003 that it was unconstitutional to ban gay marriage, paving the way for America's first same-sex marriages in May the following year.

Since then, about 7,000 gays and lesbians have wed in the state, and gay rights advocates across the country have sought to encourage other states to legalize same-sex marriages.

Those efforts have largely failed, most recently in Texas, which in November became the 19th U.S. state to approve a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Homosexual couples in at least seven states have filed lawsuits seeking the right to marry, while as many as 10 states could see campaigns this year for amendments to uphold marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

'AN ELECTRIFYING ISSUE'

In Massachusetts, VoteOnMarriage.org -- a coalition of conservative and Christian groups -- proposed the 2008 ballot initiative to amend the state constitution by defining marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.

Between September 21 and November 23 last year, they gathered more than twice the number of voter signatures needed for state legislators to put the question to the public.

On Tuesday they predicted the lawsuit would be defeated.

"We don't think the suit is credible," said Kristian Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, a backer of the initiative. "I think they were surprised at the magnitude of the number of signatures -- 170,000 -- which tells us what an electrifying issue this is with the people."

Conservatives and some religious groups say the issue is so important that voters should decide it, not the state Supreme Court.

Massachusetts' Republican governor, Mitt Romney, a devout Mormon with White House ambitions, supports their position.

The ballot initiative must be approved by 25 percent of the 200-member state Legislature this year and again in 2007 before it can go to voters.

If passed, it would not seek to annul marriage licenses already issued to same-sex couples.

GLAD said it expects the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County to consider the lawsuit against Reilly in the next few months.