Lawyers for anti-gay marriage clerk: US Supreme Court agrees marriage is for procreation

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Lawyers acting on behalf of a clerk in the US state of Oklahoma who refused to issue a marriage licence to a same-sex couple have argued that marriage exists primarily for procreation.

The assertion that the primary function of marriage is procreation, and that the US Supreme Court agrees with that, came in a brief filed on Tuesday.

It was filed in defence of of Tulsa County Court Clerk Sally Howe Smith, who refused to issue a marriage licence to lesbian couple Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin.

The couple later filed a lawsuit over Oklahoma’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, arguing that the ban puts same-sex couples, and their children, at a disadvantage.

US District Judge Terence Kern ruled against Smith in January, that the state’s ban on same-sex couples marrying violated the US Constitution.

The decision did not take effect immediately, as Judge Kern put a stay on the ruling pending a state appeal against it.

Smith later appealed the ruling, and a hearing is set for 17 April.

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