When you’re getting married, you might be prepared for any number of personal questions. One you probably aren’t expecting to get—or at least, not from the person issuing your marriage license—is what race you and your partner are.
For couples trying to get married in Virginia, this question isn’t optional, either. Three couples—Amelia Spencer and Kendall Poole, Ashley Ramkishun and Samuel Sarfo, and Sophie Rogers and Brandyn Churchill, were denied marriage licenses after refusing to specify their race.
Now, these three couples, working with civil rights lawyer Victor Glasberg, have filed a lawsuit challenging this requirement. The suit was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia on Thursday. Notably, the suit describes the requirement as “reflective of a racist past,” unconstitutional,” and “offensive,” which is all accurate. ... After all, the requirements are a close, close echo to Jim Crow laws.
The plaintiffs also argue that people should be able to identify their race if they’d like to but cite the First, 13th, and 14th amendments as protections against being mandated to do so.
What do the plaintiffs want? “Reasonable costs,” which include attorney’s fees. Otherwise, they want to be able to get married. Rogers and Churchill specifically are asking the court to stop the clerk from denying their marriage so they can get married in October.
“Plaintiffs deem the requirement of racial labeling to be scientifically baseless,” the lawsuit states, “misleading, highly controversial, a matter of opinion, practically useless, offensive to human dignity, an invasion of personal privacy compelling an unwanted public categorization of oneself, and reflective of a racist past.”
On a practical level, the suit notes that the racial labels aren’t even consistent across the state. For example, the plaintiffs allege that in Arlington, where two of the couples tried to get their marriage license, the options were as follows: American Indian/Alaskan Native; African American/Black; Asian; Caucasian; Hispanic/Latino; Pacific Islander or Other. But in Rockbridge County, the races included "Aryan," "Octoroon," "Quadroon" and "Mulatto.” Big, big yikes there.
That this is an issue in Virginia feels perhaps less surprising, given that it was the battleground of Loving v. Virginia, where the U.S. Supreme Court finally struck down state laws that banned interracial marriage. This case reached the court in 1967, which is not long ago at all.
Interestingly, Virginia isn’t alone in this requirement. Eight states in total want couples to identify their race before marrying, including Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, and New Hampshire. Oh—and as reported by
The Virginian-Pilot, if you falsely identify your race on the form, you could face a
felony charge.