NC Republicans Turn to SCOTUS to Keep Marriage Ban

A pair of GOP lawmakers from the Tar Heel state are digging in their heels on same-sex marriage in North Carolina and have requested that the United States Supreme Court quickly hear an appeal to reverse a U.S. District Court's ruling that legalized gay marriage in the state.

Freshman U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and North Carolina State Senate leader Phil Berger, both Republicans, are in a race of sorts to have their appeal heard by the high court before the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals hears the case. LGBTQ Nation notes that both lawmakers claim that the appeals court made its mistake in ruling against Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in North Carolina since October 2014 when a U.S. District Judge ruled that the 2012 voter approved amendment to the state's constitution that defined marriage as only between a man and a woman was unconstitutional. The ruling came after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal to the case that overturned Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage.

In Tillis and Berger's appeal, they state: "The current push to redefine marriage to encompass same-sex relationships would remove several of the other key components of the institution of marriage." And further say that "It would remove biological complementarity, therefore depriving a significant number of children of being raised by both of their biological parents and removing them from a structured household with both masculine and feminine influences."

The Counsel of Record on the Tillis/Berger appeal is John Eastman, chairman of the board for the National Organization for Marriage.