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

LGBTQ Activists Plan Three Marriage Counter Actions Across State

On February 14, activists and organizers with GetEQUAL — a national social justice organization focused on winning full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Americans — will stage demonstrations in partnership with Freedom to Marry Ohio at marriage counters in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati to draw attention to marriage inequality in the state of Ohio.

Despite the fact that the Supreme Court has recently ruled in favor of marriage equality for LGBTQ Americans at the federal level, it is still against Ohio state law for same-sex couples to marry. Friday’s protests are an effort to illustrate the harmful effects that Ohio’s state ban has on loving and committed couples.

“There is a need to take action,” says Morgan Bonney, one of the lead organizers for GetEQUAL Ohio. “Marriage equality is a right that everyone deserves and I want nothing more than to have the right to marry my fiancé, to ensure that we are both taken care of in challenging times, and have the ability to live safe and happy lives with one another — nothing more, nothing less.”

Shannon Glatz — an organizer with GetEQUAL Ohio who married her long-time partner last year in Washington D.C. — is choosing to demonstrate because of Ohio’s failure to recognize their marriage. Says Glatz, “Why is it that my marriage is recognized in our nation’s capital but not the state that where I live? I am a person who wishes to live with my wife and enjoy the same freedoms, benefits, and legal protections as everyone else who is married in my state. Yet, every day, I live and work in a state that essentially says I am not good enough — that I am second-class. I demand more of the Buckeye State than unabashed discrimination.”

The Valentine’s Day events will take place at 12:00noon at the following locations:

COLUMBUS

373 S. High Street, Columbus, Ohio

Media Contact: Autumn Leaf, (614) 551-7935

CINCINNATI

230 E 9th St, Cincinnati, Ohio

Media Contact: Morgan Bonney, (513) 497-0364

CLEVELAND

1 Lakeside Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio

Media Contact: Mark Szabo, (216)-256-5495

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