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Cherokee Nation Upholds Lesbian Marriage
 women's history month |
Cherokee Nation Upholds Lesbian Marriage |
Last
December, the highest court of the Cherokee Nation upheld the marriage
of a lesbian couple for the second time in two years, stating the marriage
had harmed no one and therefore could not be invalidated.
Dawn McKinley and Kathy Reynolds,
a same-sex couple who had been together for several years, obtained a
marriage license from the Cherokee Nation in May of 2004. The couple from
Owasso married in a ceremony shortly thereafter. Both members of the Cherokee
Nation, the couple applied for the license following a medical emergency
in which Dawn was refused the right to visit Kathy in a hospital because
they were not related. Another member of the Nation then filed a petition
to invalidate the marriage. The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR)
defended the couple before the Judicial Appeals Tribunal of the Cherokee
Nation which dismissed the challenge last August. It was determined that
the marriage had not harmed the person bringing the lawsuit and therefore
there was no reason to deny legal union to McKinley and Reynolds.
Members of the nation's Tribal Council
later filed another petition to invalidate the marriage. The NCLR sided
with McKinley and Reynolds again before the tribunal. On December 22,
2005, the court for the second time upheld the marriage.
Prof. Brian Gilley, an assistant professor
of anthropology at UVM and of Cherokee ancestry, told the court that there
was "overwhelming evidence" of the historical presence of same-sex
relationships among most Native North American tribes, including the Cherokee,
and that those relationships "historically shared in the institution
of marriage."
According to Lena Ayoub, the
NCLR staff attorney who represented McKinley and Reynolds, the ruling
sets a precedent for any future same-sex Cherokee couple seeking the right
to marry.
According to a Workers World article by Stephanie Hedgecoke, Indigenous
First Nations recognized by the U.S. have the legal status of "domestic
dependent sovereigns." As such, members of these First Nations are
under federal jurisdiction but not subject to state or local laws. Currently
in the U.S., state law determines the conditions of marriage.