Va. couple files federal lawsuit challenging state’s ban on gay marriage

A Virginia couple on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Tony London, 54, and Timothy Bostic, 48, filed the suit after being denied a marriage license earlier this month, reported The Virginian-Pilot.

The lawsuit is the first such legal challenge filed in Virginia, and comes just one week after Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia announced plans to file their own lawsuit.

The couple, who have been together since 1989, had considered getting married in another state, but eventually decided against it, according to Robert Ruloff, an attorney for London, a Norfolk real estate agent, and Bostic, an Old Dominion University assistant professor of English.

“They are Virginians and they want to be married in Virginia,” he said.

In 2006, Virginia voters approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage by a margin of 57 percent to 43 percent.

But attorneys for the ACLU and Lambda Legal said Virginia’s ban and three underlying statutes violate the federal constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law.