COLUMBUS — Five-month-old Sarah Makenzie Rylen sat sucking on a pacifier in the back row of the Ohio Supreme Court, cradled by her mother and her mother's lesbian partner.

        Meanwhile, seven black-robed justices sat behind a tall granite bench and considered whether lower courts should have allowed the baby's “Mommy” and “Mama” to share the same last name.

Sarah Makenzie Rylen, 5 months old, plays with her mother Jennifer Lane Bicknell (right) and Ms. Bicknell's partner, Belinda Lou Priddy, at their home Wednesday. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

        Wednesday's 40-minute hearing was fast-paced and spirited, with the justices hurling tough questions in a case that lawyers portrayed as the first of its kind to reach the state's highest court. The case has pitted the American Family Association of Ohio, a conservative Christian group, against a pair of Butler County women who never wanted to be in the spotlight. The women have gained the support of several groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.

        “They've really been put into a looking-glass world where they've had to fight this hard to do what courts usually encourage people to do — and that's to act in the best interests of the child,” their Cincinnati lawyer, Scott E. Knox, told the justices. The women said they wanted to change their names so their children would have a mutual family surname.

        Mr. Knox, who says other same-sex couples elsewhere have gotten their names changed without a fight, argues that state law requires only that there be “reasonable and proper cause for the name change.” Name changes are generally approved as long as they aren't being done for fraudulent purposes.

        The case is one of a growing number of gay rights “equal treatment” cases pending in high courts across the nation, said Matt Coles, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Gay Rights Project.

        He thinks the upsurge is happening for several reasons, including a growing realization that “American families are more complicated than people had thought ... the Ozzie-and-Harriet mold was never realistic.”

        The women have said they want to change their last names to “Rylen,” a blend of some letters from their current surnames, for family unity.

        “It's something so personal, something we thought would take 10 minutes in front of a judge. My brother had his name changed and that's all it took him. But we've been at this for over two years,” Belinda Lou Priddy, 31, said in an interview. “It's just kept going. It's had this snowball effect. And, the thing is, whatever our name is doesn't really affect anyone but us.”

        Ms. Priddy and her partner, Jennifer Lane Bicknell, 33, live in a working-class Hamilton neighborhood. Ms. Bicknell, impregnated via artificial insemination, gave birth to three children in November: Sarah, who lives in the home; Tyler, who died at 5 weeks old, and Lindsay, who remains hospitalized for complications of premature birth.

        The parties were reluctant to predict how the justices might rule; a decision is expected to take several months.

        Through much of the hearing, David Langdon, a lawyer for the American Family Association of Ohio, seemed to be on the defensive.

        “I'm starting to get used to these judges coming down on me pretty hard,” he commented afterward.

        His main argument was that a court-approved name change would give tacit state approval to “a relationship that has no legal validity.”

        Mr. Langdon urged the justices to uphold the Ohio 12th District Court of Appeals' denial of the women's name change because “Ohio has a public policy that disfavors things such as homosexuality and cohabitation ... fornication, adultery.”

        Justice Paul E. Pfeifer replied: “Where do you get all of that?. ... I don't know where you find all that in the Ohio Revised Code.”

        Justice Pfeifer also asked Mr. Langdon: “Are you trying to argue, to ask this court to discriminate against those who engage in a lifestyle that you find obnoxious?”

        Mr. Langdon replied, “Not at all. Uh, I believe that — well, in effect, yes, I am, in the same way that the General Assembly has discriminated against them by not allowing them to get married.”

        Justice Pfeifer wondered whether a ruling based on that rationale would withstand federal court challenges.

        Mr. Langdon said it was “perfectly legitimate” for courts to favor marriage and said that has been “upheld time and time again” in other court cases.

        However, Justice Alice Robie Resnick commented: “I didn't understand how that whole subject of marriage came into this. We all know that we do not have same-sex marriages.”

        She said it disturbed her that the Butler County magistrate and judge who denied the women's requests broached the “sanctity-of-marriage” issue.

        “They brought it up and I don't see any place for it in this situation,” she said, adding she felt their denials of the women's requests showed “unbridled discretion.”
       

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