Tennessee Doesn’t Have To Recognize Same-Sex Marriages, Appeals Court Decides

Gay rights advocates rally for marriage equality in 2012 in Nashville. Credit: Tennessee Equality Project.

Editor’s note: Response from advocacy groups have been added below.

A federal appeals court has upheld bans on same-sex marriage in several states, including Tennessee, inspiring strong emotions from advocacy groups — disappointment from those supporting gay marriage and praise from those pushing to prevent it. More specifically, the Sixth Circuit decided Tennessee is allowed to not recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

The ruling could have changed Nashville resident Jason Stalcup’s marital status. Stalcup and his partner tied the knot in Vermont last December to get federal benefits, but their marriage has no legal status in Tennessee.

Stalcup, who volunteers for the Tennessee Equality Project, says he wasn’t entirely surprised by the court’s ruling, because some of the judges were known to be fairly conservative. But he says the ruling was frustrating to read.

“Gay Americans, I think, just want to be treated like everybody else,” he says. “When you see something like this sanctioned by the courts, it’s just very demoralizing to see it handed down in black and white.”

The 2-1 decision, issued by a three-judge panel, said it is constitutional for a state to define marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. So, it said, Tennessee doesn’t have to recognize out-of-state gay marriages, just as it doesn’t recognize in-state gay marriages.

The Sixth Circuit panel also ruled in favor of gay marriage bans in Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan — becoming the first federal appeals court in the country to uphold such bans. The diverging opinions could lead the U.S. Supreme Court to finally take up the issue. That’s been a goal of some advocacy groups on both sides of the marriage debate who want to see the issue resolved once and for all.

Those challenging Tennessee’s law could also first ask the full Sixth Circuit court to reconsider the case.

Updated Nov. 7, 9 a.m.: David Fowler, head of the conservative advocacy group Family Action Council of Tennessee, says the court’s ruling was “a much-needed measure of judicial and constitutional sanity” in the debate over marriage laws. The Human Rights Campaign, a national civil rights organization, called the decision “shameful.”