By Connor Radnovich | Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – Former Arizona Rep. Jim Kolbe joined representatives of business, church and civil-rights groups last week to file briefs supporting same-sex marriage in two upcoming Supreme Court cases on the issue.
Kolbe, who married his partner in Washington, D.C., said civil unions are no longer sufficient and that now is the time for marriage equality for gay couples across the country.
“There was a time when gay marriage seemed like just a vision so far in the future that it didn’t even seem possible,” Kolbe said. “Times have changed, and I think now we recognize that civil unions doesn’t do it. We need to have more. We need to have the full equality.”
He was one of nine speakers at a news conference intended to show the breadth of same-sex marriage supporters. Each of the speakers had signed on to various friend-of-the-court briefs.
Statement by RLG attorney Laura Bianchi: “It’s time for a historic change in our laws that will allow same-sex couples the ability to enjoy the same rights and benefits their married heterosexual counterparts now enjoy.”
