Clifford Rosky, Professor of Law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in the legal challenge to Utah’s Amendment 3. The brief was prepared with the assistance of attorneys at Zimmerman Jones Booher LLC.
In a statement, Rosky said, “While Amendment 3 has the same basic purpose as the Defense of Marriage Act, it has a more harmful impact our families, because it imposes inequality even more deeply into our lives. In effect, Amendment 3 tells our children, “Your parents are not really married, and one of your parents is not really your parent.” It ensures that our families will never be legally recognized as “real” families—families entitled to equal respect and protection under our laws.
“By writing inequality into Utah’s laws, Amendment 3 inflicts a devastating blow on LGBT children, who are among the State’s most vulnerable citizens. As the district court recognized, “Utah’s prohibition of same-sex marriage further injures the children . . . who themselves are gay or lesbian, and who will grow up with the knowledge that the State does not believe they are as capable of creating a family as their heterosexual friends.”
“By filing this brief, we hope to express the equal dignity of all Utah families, and to secure protections for all LGBT people living under the harms inflicted by Amendment 3.”