As marriage equality continues to spread from one state in another, a small group of powerful government lawyers is doing everything they can to hold it back. In just the last week attorneys general in at least three states have taken steps to fight gay and lesbian citizens.

Colorado's John Suthers has promised to appeal rulings that the state's ban on marriage equality is unconstitutional. But last week a court ruled that Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall can continue issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, in defiance of Suthers' wishes.

In Wisconsin J. B. Van Hollen filed a brief arguing that the state isn't required to provide its citizens with equal rights. Montana Attorney General Tim Fox filed yet another brief, this one arguing that gay and lesbian couples aren't demeaned by laws that treat them differently. And in North Dakota Wayne Stenehjem hasn't responded to a request from several couples for summary judgment in a marriage case, but he has, in the past, threatened to defend the state's marriage-equality ban.

All these men are defying the values of everday Americans, a majority of whom have supported the freedom to marry for the last few years. And in Wisconsin a brand-new survey bears that out: Some 56 percent of voters there oppose the marriage-equality ban that Van Hollen has dedicated himself to defending.

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