Things have changed for countless couples across the state now that same-sex marriages performed in other states will be recognized in Kentucky.
This past October Eric Abele and Lane Price became husband and husband at a ceremony held in New York City. When they returned to their home in Lexington, that legal piece of paper from the Big Apple, meant nothing in the bluegrass state…until yesterday.
“I had gone to lunch and I wasn’t married then I came back from lunch and I’m now recognized as married!”
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge John Heyburn ruled that Kentucky’s law prohibiting the state from recognizing valid same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. Abele says this ruling gives him and his partner the one thing they have been lacking, the same safety net as other married couples.
“If the worst happens, he is now my husband in the eyes of the law. He can make decisions on my behalf for me. We can inherit each other’s property. All those things that become incredibly complicated when you’re not married, marriage just sort of opens up those legal avenues.”
Abele says he doesn’t understand the misconception some people have towards same-sex couples.
“We are just boring tax-paying people who take care of our animals and we have our jobs and we commute and we argue about groceries just like everyone else and so it’s so funny to me when people get excited and passionate about being against gay marriage because I think it’s really not that big a deal. I’m just a really firm believer that my marriage doesn’t change your marriage.”
When I asked him what changes he hoped to see on this issue in ten years Abele said he hoped by then the nation would be so accepting that it wouldn’t even be a topic of conversation anymore.