New DOMA Challenge Filed in Florida

August 10, 2004

A lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Federal Court in Tampa seeking to strike down the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The suit was filed on behalf of a Tampa Bay lesbian couple who married in Canada but whose marriage is not recognized in the US.

Rev. Phyllis E. Hunt and her spouse, Vilia Corvision, were married last month in Toronto. Hunt is the pastor of Metropolitan Community Church, in Tampa, Corvision, is of Cuban descent. They have been together over 11 years.

The couple is represented by Ellis Rubin, who is also representing another MCC Florida minister the Rev. Nancy Wilson, and her spouse Paula Schoenwether, a family marriage counselor. They filed a similar suit last month.

Wilson and Schoenwether have been together for 27 years and were married July 2 in Massachusetts, the only US state where same-sex marriages are recognized.

Rubin who has become the biggest private litigator for same-sex marriage. Rubin currently has five additional suits underway in Florida but these are the first ones challenging the Federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Both DOMA suits name US Attorney General, John Ashcroft, the Regional Social Security Director, the Deputy Internal Revenue Service Commissioner and others.

The suits argue that the federal ban on gay marriage is a constitutional issue, which is why Ashcroft is named as a defendant.

The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and a 1997 Florida statute that defines marriage as the union between a man and woman violate the equal-protection rights of his clients, Rubin said.