Video: Federal Judge Strikes Down Same-Sex Marriage Ban in Mississippi

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STARKVILLE, Miss (WCBI) – On Tuesday, Federal judges struck down the same-sex marriage ban in the state of Mississippi, opening the door for same-sex couples to marry.
The state says it will appeal the decision.

There are 35 states in the U-S that allow same-sex couples to marry and now Mississippi could be added to that list. This week, Judge Carlton Reeves of the 5th U-S Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the ban on same-sex marriage in Arkansas and Mississippi.

“The decision that Reeves made for two lesbian plaintiff couples and their families is interesting in the sense that this is the only state in the country that’s never elected a woman to Congress. So the paradoxes here are striking and it tells us that there’s a lot of work to do but in the context of Civil Rights, this is not new,” says Dr. Ravi Perry, MSU Associate Professor of Political Science.

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood says he will appeal the ruling. Still if the ruling is upheld, local government officials will have to abide by the decision.

“Our job is to follow the law as it’s laid out for us, that would be our intentions. We’d have to look at it and we’ll just adhere to that as it’s written out. We’ll just adopt whatever the state as a whole comes up with and go with that,” says Glenn Hamilton, the Oktibbeha County Circuit Clerk.

Mississippi has the highest rate nationally of LGBT couples raising children at 26%. Those who support marriage equality say this is a victory for families in the state.

“It’s about marriage equality, it’s about families, it’s about accepting all families no matter their arrangements and allowing everyone, particularly children, to grow up in a stable environment. What Judge Reeves said is that this is a part of the Civil Rights story,” says Perry.

Judge Reeves also issued a stay or temporary suspension of the order to give the state a chance to appeal the decision.

According to the 2010 Census Data, there are nearly 3,500 same-sex couples living in the state of Mississippi.