--- title: Ijpe DeKoe | TIME description: Ijpe DeKoe and his husband Thom Kostura are plaintiffs in the Tennessee Supreme Court same-sex marriage case. DeKoe is a Sergeant on active duty in the Army Reserve and Kostura is a artist and graduate of the Memphis College of Art Master's Program. canonical: https://time.com/author/ijpe-dekoe/ og:title: TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:url: https://time.com/author/ijpe-dekoe/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 300 og:image:height: 300 og:image:alt: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:type: profile twitter:card: summary twitter:title: TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates twitter:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Ijpe DeKoe ## Ijpe DeKoe _Ijpe DeKoe and his husband Thom Kostura are plaintiffs in the Tennessee Supreme Court same-sex marriage case. DeKoe is a Sergeant on active duty in the Army Reserve and Kostura is a artist and graduate of the Memphis College of Art Master's Program._ ## Ijpe DeKoe * ![Plaintiffs Thomas Kostra, center and his husband Ijpe Dekoe, right, from Tennessee, speak with the media outside the Supreme Court of the United States following arguments on marriage equality in Washington on April 28, 2015.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc1112c800d736879/6987eddb5f570fc1f0b1965b/supreme-court-gay-marriage3.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1:1) May 1, 2015 ### [Gay-Marriage Plaintiff: Our Names Are Now Part of the History of Marriage Equality](https://time.com/3841709/gay-marriage-plaintiff-marriage-equality/) "We were fighting for all couples who love each other, care for each other, and want to share a life... [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) Meta: null ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://time.com/","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/author/ijpe-dekoe/","name":"Ijpe DeKoe"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Person","@id":"https://time.com/author/ijpe-dekoe/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/author/ijpe-dekoe/"},"name":"Ijpe DeKoe","jobTitle":null,"description":"Ijpe DeKoe and his husband Thom Kostura are plaintiffs in the Tennessee Supreme Court same-sex marriage case. DeKoe is a Sergeant on active duty in the Army Reserve and Kostura is a artist and graduate of the Memphis College of Art Master's Program.","url":"https://time.com/author/ijpe-dekoe/","worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/"}}] ```