Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban has been ruled unconstitutional

The same-sex marriage movement landed a minor victory on Friday as a federal appeals court ruled that Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional. While the state’s ban will remain in place for now, this ruling affirms a federal judge’s decision in January.

In its Friday ruling, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a January decision in which United States District Judge Terence Kern struck Oklahoma’s ban, writing at the time that the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law “is not a scarce commodity to be meted out begrudgingly or in short portions.” This victory, however, was hampered by two setbacks in Colorado and Utah.

The Colorado Supreme Court ordered the Denver County clerk to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples and the United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ruled that the state of Utah may continue to deny marriage benefits to more than 1,000 married same-sex couples.

The Supreme Court weighed in, albeit tepidly, on Utah’s ongoing fight over same-sex marriage. In a two-sentence order Friday, Sotomayor put a lower court’s May decision on hold pending appeal, thereby allowing Utah to continue denying marriage benefits to more than 1,000 same-sex couples wed during a 17-day window in late December and early January.

The Oklahoma ruling represents a safe advance for the same-sex marriage movement which has enjoyed a string of legal victories since the Supreme Court struck part of the Defense of Marriage Act last summer thereby granting federal recognition of same-sex marriages. In a survey last year, Gallup found that 3.4 percent of Oklahomans identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Oklahoma may now either ask the full bench circuit court to reconsider the case, or it can opt to appeal directly to the Supreme Court as Utah has, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a pro-gay marriage group. Read more about the story here.