A San Antonio attorney for a pair of same-sex couples that have the sued the State of Texas over its statutes concerning gay-marriage has asked the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to hear their case next month, citing concern for one his clients who is pregnant.
In the motion, filed on Monday, San Antonio attorney Daniel McNeel Lane, Jr. wrote: "What should typically be a joyous, albeit anxious time, in any married couple’s relationship will instead be fraught with uncertainty and insecurity that no married heterosexual couple must endure because of the state’s current laws concerning marriage."
This would be the couple’s second child together, said Nicole Dimetmen. During the birth of their son, her partner, Cleopatra De Leon, had multiple complications in the delivery room.
Dimetmen said, “We had done everything we could do to protect our family when Cleo was pregnant with our son. And it wasn’t until we were in the hospital and complications arose that we realized just how vulnerable that we were, because you can’t adopt someone until they are born and alive. And so if anything were to happen to Cleo, I could not make medical decisions for my son.”
Dimetmen and De Leon were married in Massachusetts five years ago, but the State of Texas doesn’t recognize that marriage.
Earlier this year, San Antonio Federal District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled that Texas laws concerning same-sex marriage violated the couple's constitutional rights because the state didn’t provide equal-protections under the law for gay and lesbian couples.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott appealed that decision to the 5th circuit. The case is ultimately expected to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Motion To Expedite Oral Argument
