​Plaintiffs who challenged ND’s same-sex marriage ban react to Supreme Court’s decision

After the Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states on Friday, this week U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson declared North Dakota’s gay marriage ban “unconstitutional and invalid” and ruled in favor of the plaintiffs who had challenged the ban.Following his ruling, HPR caught up with some of the plaintiffs in the case, made up of seven couples who banded together to take on the law after similar ones had been struck down all over the country. Their reaction was filled with relief, happiness and acknowledgment that there is more to do.

Plaintiff Ron Ramsay is upset that we will never know how Judge Erickson would’ve ruled in the case prior to the Supreme Court’s decision. Erickson received the case before the Supreme Court did then put his ruling on hold once the Supreme Court took up the bans. Erickson quickly struck down the ban on Monday once the Supreme Court ruled on Friday.

“I’m disappointed that the judge was unwilling to rule in the first place and we are presumably going to have to wait for his memoirs to be published at the end of his judicial career to find out what he might have said,” Ramsay said. “I am still inordinately curious how he might have ruled in the first place. But of course putting it off until after the Supreme Court had made its decision basically makes the ruling meaningless.”

It could have been handled differently, however. In the south, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore are telling counties not to issue marriage licenses and signaling they want to fight the Supreme Court ruling. Before Judge Erickson issues his ruling on Monday, North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said the state would not fight the Supreme Court ruling.

“I didn’t expect North Dakota to behave like some of the southern states,” said Bernie Erickson, another plaintiff. “Texas is carrying on in a pretty bad way. Alabama is once again a national embarrassment. I didn’t expect North Dakota to be that way but I was certainly very pleasantly surprised at how quickly they moved forward with this.”

These plaintiffs risked public backlash for challenging the state’s gay marriage ban, which was amended by a landslide public vote in 2004. However, Janet Jorgensen and Cynthia Phillips, a couple who were part of the lawsuit, say if there was any backlash they didn’t hear about it.

“I am just happy that I was able to put myself out there to help make a change that will benefit a lot of people and possibly be part of history,” Jorgensen said.

All the plaintiffs said they hope the legalization of same-sex marriage will lead to discrimination protections for LGBT residents in the state, which failed in the last legislative session.

“This is a step in the right direction but the reality remains in North Dakota, you can get married on Saturday, have your announcement in the paper on Sunday and walk into work on Monday and be fired from your job and that’s perfectly legal,” Bernie Erickson remarked.

Cynthia Phillips said despite anti-discrimination laws not passing in the past, the business community’s strong support for LGBT rights is an indicator that they eventually will pass.

“There are certainly a corps of people in North Dakota who recognize if we are to attract and retain the best and the brightest, we have to have this kind of change,” she said.

While all plaintiffs we spoke to agreed that opposition to the Supreme Court ruling had been, for the most part, fairly quiet since the ruling, they couldn’t help but remark about the comments of State Representative Dwight Kiefert (R-Valley City), who wrote on his Facebook page that the ruling was a victory for the mentally ill.

“I think there are a lot of people, not just in North Dakota, but everywhere who think the same way that Rep. Keifert does,” Phillips said. “One of the great benefits of this case and this tipping point in society is that people are learning how many folks they know and respect are in same-sex relationships. They are having an opportunity to learn that those attitudes are wrong and outdated. I am sorry that someone who holds elected office doesn’t understand better the role he has as a public person and is not more careful in the kind of remarks (he makes).”

Plaintiff Ramsay said implementation of the strike down of the law equally is important to watch for over the next few months and only until that happens can this be called a victory. For instance, his straight married colleague doesn’t have to prove he’s married in order to get him and his wife health insurance. Will the same thing happen to gay married couples?

“I am hopeful for the future,” he said. “I am hopeful that state agencies will step up to the plate now that Judge Erickson has issued his ruling and that not only the issuances of marriage licenses and the performances of the ceremonies but all of those other things inheritance, joint filing of taxes, access to health care and insurances, hospital visiting privileges, child custody. There are so many things that are contingent upon the relatively simple acknowledgment of same gender marriage and when all of the rest of those things start flowing as naturally as they do to straight couples, then I think we will have made a major accomplishment.”

Cass County, unlike other counties in North Dakota, didn’t wait until Judge Erickson’s ruling to issue same-sex marriages licenses. County officials began doing so Friday afternoon following the Supreme Court ruling based on advisement of Cass County State’s Attorney Birch Burdick. One license has been issued in Cass County, according to Cass County Deputy Treasurer Carrie Clemens, whose office issues the licenses.

“I am a little surprised,” Clemens told HPR. “I thought we would’ve had a couple more by now. Considering that it is legal in Minnesota and has been for awhile, I think they probably got the majority of the couples who were wanting to get married in this area.”

In fact, all of the plaintiffs we spoke to were already married. Three of them got married in Minnesota on the day gay marriage became legal in the state in August 2013.

Clemens said any gay couple is welcome to come in now and get a marriage license during business hours.

The plaintiffs we spoke to were a bit divided on whether there would be a flock of marriages in North Dakota following the ruling.

“People, especially in smaller communities, are going to be reticent about calling that sort of attention to themselves,” Ramsay said.

“David (Hamilton, his spouse) and I are in our 50s so we are not quite as connected with those 20 and 30 year olds who are typically the ones getting married,” Bernie Erickson said. “But yes I do think there will be quite a few coming forward.”

Jorgensen agrees, but worries about the effect of the lack of discrimination protections.

“’I think there’s probably going to be a lot of marriages, but then on the other hand it is pretty scary that you could get married on one day, go to work and then be fired for coming out of the closet,” Jorgensen said. “There could be people that decide they’ve had enough and wanna leave the state. That would be a great loss to North Dakota.”

Ramsay also isn’t sure that all hearts and minds are on the same page on the issue in the state but it’s vastly improved from what it was in part due to demographics and the state getting younger. As the numbers of young people in the state have increased in recent years, so have attitudes and acceptance towards LGBT citizens improved.

“Clearly, there are some minds out there that are going to be difficult to change, if they can be changed at all and I have my doubts,” Ramsay said. “On the other hand, I’m 70 years old and I never imagined that this day would come in my lifetime. It’s been a huge sea change certainly just in the last 10 years.”