(GayWebSource.com – Gay News & Press Network) – Posted by Michael Lamb – Echelon Magazine

Today a Republican-appointed federal judge ruled that Kentucky’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex couples from the freedom to marry is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II was appointed by President George H. W. Bush in 1992, on the recommendation of current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry, released the following statement:

“Today a Republican-appointed federal judge in Kentucky held – as have more than 20 other judges and as did the U.S. Supreme Court last year – that discriminatory state marriage bans are unconstitutional. It is wrong for the government to deny same-sex couples the freedom to marry the person they love; a freedom that is part of every American’s liberty and pursuit of happiness. Today’s ruling in Kentucky underscores that America — all of America — is ready for the freedom to marry, and the Supreme Court should bring the country to national resolution as soon as possible.”

Today’s ruling follows a February ruling from the same judge, which stated that Kentucky must respect the legal marriages of same-sex couples performed outside of Kentucky. That case will be heard by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on August 6, 2014.

Since last year’s landmark Supreme Court decision striking down the core of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, 23 consecutive rulings have struck down state marriage bans as unconstitutional.

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