[IPSM] Cherokee high court rejects challenge to lesbian marriage

[Macdonald Stainsby]

Cherokee high court rejects challenge to lesbian marriage
By Stephanie Hedgecoke
Published Jan 30, 2006 9:23 PM

The Judicial Appeals Tribunal of the Cherokee Nation, the highest 
Cherokee court, upheld the marriage of a lesbian Cherokee couple on Dec. 
22 in Tahlequah, Okla.

Dawn McKinley and Kathy Reynolds of Owasso, Okla., were issued a 
marriage certificate from the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma in May 2004 
and were married shortly afterward. But after they were wed, a temporary 
moratorium was placed on any marriage registrations and the couple were 
not allowed to register their certificate.

Todd Hembree, the Tribal Council’s attorney, filed a suit in opposition 
to the marriage and argued before the court that the Cherokee Nation had 
no right to recognize the marriage. That suit was defeated last August 
when the court ruled Hembree had no right to sue on the grounds that he 
could not show that he had suffered any harm from the couple’s attempt 
to be recognized as a married couple.

full: http://www.workers.org/2006/us/cherokee-0209/
-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
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