Court Reinstates Neb. Gay Marriage Ban

Ariele Affigne of Providence, R.I., a volunteer for Mass Equality, a group supporting the right to gay marriage, participates in a rally supporting gay marriage outside the Statehouse in Boston, Wednesday, July 12, 2006. The Massachusetts legislators began working their way through a stack of proposed constitutional amendments, including one that would define marriage as the union of a man and woman. (AP Photo/Celina Fang) (Celina Fang - AP)

Only Massachusetts allows gay marriage, acquired through a ruling by the state's high court. Vermont and Connecticut allow same-sex civil unions that confer the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples.

But even in Massachusetts, lawmakers are trying to ban gay marriage, and the high court ruled this week that legislative efforts to put a gay-marriage ban on the state's 2008 ballot could move forward. The top courts in two other states also dealt gay rights advocates setbacks last week: The New York court rejected a bid by same-sex couples to win marriage rights, and the Georgia court reinstated a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage there.

David Buckel, senior staff attorney at Lambda Legal, said Nebraska's ban is "the most extreme of all the anti-gay family laws in the nation" and his group is considering asking the appeals court to rehear the case.

He said the court ignored the claims raised in the lawsuit.

"We did not sue about marriage, we sued because our clients were told it was a waste of time to try to get a domestic partnership bill passed" in the Legislature," he said. "Yet the court is reasoning as if what we asked for was the right to marry."

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning countered that no one's freedom of expression or association was violated.

"Plaintiffs are free to petition state senators to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot," Bruning said. "Plaintiffs are similarly free to begin an initiative process to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot, just as supporters ... did."

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Associated Press writer Beth Rucker in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this story.