May 2004: Marriage in Massachusetts and the Cherokee Nation
Massachusetts
And then finally, on May 17, 2004, the first state-sanctioned marriage licenses are granted to same-sex couples, in Massachusetts. (The Goodridge court issued its ruling on November 18, 2003, with a 180 day stay. The stay expired on May 17, 2004.)
In this take-off on Norman Rockwell, done before the marriages began (by, incidentally, the animator who won the Academy Award for Who Framed Roger Rabbit), note the date on the wall calendar above the couple’s heads: June 27. That’s the date the Stonewall Riots began in 1969.
The Cherokee Nation
Also that month, Dawn McKinley and Kathy Reynolds sought and received a marriage license from the Cherokee Nation and were wed on Cherokee land in Oklahoma. The couple had learned the necessity of legal marriage when McKinley was barred from Reynolds’ hospital room because she was not considered family. And as parents raising a child, they wished to secure legal recognition for their family. Since Cherokee law didn’t exclude marriages of same-sex couples, they received their license without difficulty.
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| Dawn McKinley and Kathy Reynolds |
(However when the couple tried to file the license with the tribe to make their marriage official, they discovered that a tribal judge had issued an injunction against it. The National Center for Lesbian Rights took their case and successfully defended their marriage from two challenges by tribal council members, the legislative branch of the Cherokee Nation. The tribal court ruled in both instances that those who are not harmed by such a marriage cannot bring suit against it. See Anglen v. McKinley and Reynolds.)
(Because the Cherokee Nation has since passed a DOMA, such marriages will not be allowed in the future and the case is anticipated to have little precedential value. Nonetheless, it is significant that the court acknowledged that neither legislators nor the Cherokee Nation itself are harmed by such marriages. It is also a striking example of tribal law operating independently of state and federal law. It will be interesting to see whether the State of Oklahoma and the federal government will recognize this marriage as one protected by the laws of a sovereign nation existing within its own borders.)
Timeline key: progress (green),
no progress (red),
pending court cases (purple),
events that are neutral, not directly related, or with both positive and negative effects (black)
updated 17 Aug 2008