Aug 13, 2004  |  By: MATTHEW A. HENNIE  | COMMENTS     

ATLANTA — Opponents of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in Georgia said Tuesday they will file a lawsuit challenging the measure, which appears on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Turning to the courts to fight the ballot measure mirrors a strategy employed in Louisiana, where opponents of a similar proposal — which heads to voters on Sept. 18 — filed two lawsuits Aug. 6. One of those suits was dismissed on Tuesday; a hearing for the second challenge is scheduled for Friday.

In Georgia, the lawsuit challenges the language used to describe the measure on the November ballot, according to Beth Littrell, an attorney with the ACLU of Georgia.

“We have been planning a challenge in Georgia,” Littrell said. “It is a precarious legal challenge and one we are preparing to file.”

The announcement of the legal challenge came Tuesday during a two-hour town hall session hosted by U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Atlanta), the only member of the state’s congressional delegation to speak out against the proposed gay marriage ban.

Littrell said gay groups would join the ACLU in filing the lawsuit, but she would not discuss other details of the move, including when the challenge will be filed and what remedy it will seek.

“It is premature to talk about what we are asking at this point,” Littrell said after the meeting Tuesday.

Littrell also said that if the measure passes in November, legal groups will sue to overturn it, challenging the ban on several grounds, including arguments that it violates the separation of church and state. Opponents argue the legislation that created the proposed ballot measure was based, in part, on the religious objections to homosexuality by lawmakers in the Georgia General Assembly.

To pass, the constitutional amendment needs 50 percent plus one of the votes cast on Nov. 2.

The possible legal challenge prior to the vote marks an aggressive turn in the strategy to defeat the measure. Georgians Against Discrimination, a coalition formed to oppose the amendment, has focused on voter identification and canvassing while mired in internal struggles over strategy and responsibilities among its 14-person steering committee.

Georgia Equality, a statewide gay rights group, fired the effort’s campaign manager on July 22, about a month after it hired him, at the request of the steering committee. A five-person panel comprised of steering committee members and Georgia Equality representatives is conducting interviews for a replacement.

La. challenge dismissed
On Tuesday, a state court judge in New Orleans dismissed a lawsuit challenging a proposed amendment that would ban gay marriage in Louisiana, saying the measure should have been filed in Baton Rouge, the state capital. The plaintiffs are suing Secretary of State Fox McKeithen, whose office prepared the ballots for Sept. 18, and the city of New Orleans.

The suit was filed Aug. 6 by the Forum for Equality Political Action Committee and argued that the amendment was illegally approved by the state legislature. The lawsuit contends the legislation was drawn up for “multiple objectives,” which is forbidden in legislation by the state constitution.

The amendment includes language that would ban civil unions and other language that could be interpreted as outlawing the extension of domestic partnership benefits, attorney Randy Evans said when the suit was filed, according to the Associated Press.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include a man who opposes government recognition of gay marriage but favors government recognition of civil unions, a gay man who said the amendment could outlaw existing legal contracts governing his relationship with his partner, and a lesbian who shared similar concerns.

A hearing on the second lawsuit is scheduled for Friday at noon.

If passed, the Georgia amendment could affect the $8.5 billion economic impact tourism has across the state through boycotts or gay tourists opting for trips elsewhere, according to Gregory Pierce, chief financial officer of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“There is no specific data on the potential loss of gay and lesbian tourism, but it will happen,” said Pierce.