OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The Cherokee Nation’s attorney general legalized gay marriage for the country’s second-largest Native American tribe, saying its same-sex marriage ban violates a tribal requirement for all of its citizens to be treated equally.
Attorney General Todd Hembree’s opinion, which was issued Friday, says parts of a 2004 tribal law that defined marriage as “a civil contract between one man and one woman” and prohibited marriage between two persons of the same sex violate the Cherokee Constitution, which requires the equal treatment of tribal citizens.
“The right to marry without the freedom to marry the person of one’s choice is no right at all,” Hembree wrote in his opinion.
Tribal Assistant Attorney General Chrissi Nimmo said Monday that the opinion carries the force of law and legalizes same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples who are members of the Oklahoma-based tribe, which has about 300,000 members.
The Cherokee Nation was among 11 of the nation’s 567 federally recognized tribes that had explicit bans on gay marriage.