Here’s the press release from Campaign for Southern Equality:
Attorney General Cooper should choose same course of action as Virginia Attorney General Herring
Asheville, N.C. (January 23, 2014) This morning Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced that his office will cease to defend Virginia’s ban against same-sex marriage in a federal lawsuit that is progressing through the courts. “As attorney general, I cannot and will not defend laws that violate Virginians’ rights,” Herring said. “The commonwealth will be siding with the plaintiffs in this case and with every other Virginia couple whose right to marry is being denied.”
“I am hopeful that NC Attorney General Cooper will take the same course of action as Virginia Attorney General Herrin and choose not to defend Amendment One, an unjust law that will ultimately be ruled unconstitutional,” says Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, Executive Director of the Campaign for Southern Equality. “Every day that Amendment One remains on the books, same-sex families in North Carolina are harmed because they are denied fundamental rights and protections.”
Recent actions by the North Carolina Department of Revenue and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC clearly demonstrate Amendment One’s negative impacts on North Carolina families.
Directive PD-13-1 issued by the North Carolina Department of Revenue states that legally married same-sex couples in North Carolina must file their state taxes separately, despite the fact that they will file federal taxes jointly. Additionally Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC does not offer family coverage plans to legally married same-sex couples due to Amendment One. As a result, legally-married gay couples who have enrolled in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace as married have had their insurance plans cancelled by Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
NC Department of Revenue directive can be found at: http://www.dornc.com/practitioner/individual/directives/pd-13-1.pdf
Blue Cross and Blue Shield statement can be found at:
http://goqnotes.com/27126/n-c-blue-cross-doesnt-recognize-married-gay-couples-yet/Based in the South, the Campaign for Southern Equality (CSE) is a national effort to assert the full humanity and equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in American life and to increase public support for LGBT rights.
www.southernequality.org
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