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Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Baby Sean is only six months old, but he already knows there are two women in his life who adore him. Now, those women are asking the State of Minnesota to recognize their relationship, and their family.
“We’re not trying to be treated differently or better than anyone else,” said Lindzi Campbell. “We just want protection for our families. Stability.”
Campbell and her partner Jesse Dykhuis are one of three gay couples who filed the suit Tuesday in Hennepin County alleging, among other things, the State violated their right to marry. It’s a lawsuit two years in the making. “Two years of fundraising, relentlessly asking people for help,” said Dykhuis.
Full Story from WDIO
Click here for gay marriage resources in Minnesota.
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Posted in Gay Marriage, lawsuit, lesbian couple | No Responses »
Tags: Gay Marriage, lawsuit, lesbian couple, marriage equality, minnesota, mn, same sex marriage
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Lambda Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief today in support of the city of Cleveland in a lawsuit brought by an anti-gay group attempting to strip away the newly enacted domestic partnership registry for same-sex couples and their families. The brief was filed in the Court of Appeals of Ohio, Eighth Appellate District.
“To suggest to same-sex couples and their families that a domestic partnership registry somehow resembles marriage is preposterous. The domestic partnership law in Cleveland and the state constitutional amendment barring same-sex couples from marriage are not in conflict with each other,” said Christopher Clark, senior staff attorney in Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Office based in Chicago.
“We hope this court will rule as other courts across the country have ruled and dismiss this mean-spirited attack on same-sex couples and their families.”
Full Story from SDGLN
Click here for gay marriage resources.
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Posted in adf, alliance defense fund, cleveland, domestic partner registry, Gay Marriage, lawsuit, marriage equality, oh, ohio, same sex marriage | No Responses »
Friday, February 12th, 2010
The London LGBT group OutRage! on Feb. 1 announced a dual legal challenge to the British bans on same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships. Several gay and straight couples will file a joint application to the European Court of Human Rights, the group said.
“The aim is to secure full equality in civil marriage and civil-partnership law,” said veteran activist Peter Tatchell. “We want both systems open to all couples, gay and straight.”
Civil partnerships and marriage carry the same rights and obligations in the United Kingdom, but under different laws and names.
Full Story from Pride Source
Click here for gay marriage resources in England.
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Posted in britain, Gay Marriage, lawsuit, marriage equality, outrage, same sex marriage, uk | No Responses »
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
The biggest open secret in the landmark trial over same-sex marriage being heard in San Francisco is that the federal judge who will decide the case, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, is himself gay. Many gay politicians in San Francisco and lawyers who have had dealings with Walker say the 65-year-old jurist, appointed to the bench by President George H.W. Bush in 1989, has never taken pains to disguise – or advertise – his orientation.
They also don’t believe it will influence how he rules on the case he’s now hearing – whether Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure approved by state voters to ban same-sex marriage, unconstitutionally discriminates against gays and lesbians.
“There is nothing about Walker as a judge to indicate that his sexual orientation, other than being an interesting factor, will in any way bias his view,” said Kate Kendell, head of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which is supporting the lawsuit to overturn Prop. 8. As evidence, she cites the judge’s conservative – albeit libertarian – reputation, and says, “There wasn’t anyone who thought (overturning Prop. 
was a cakewalk given his sexual orientation.”
Full Story from SFGate
Click here for gay marriage resources in California.
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Posted in gay, Gay Marriage, Judge walker, lawsuit, marriage equality, prop 8, proposition 8 trial, same sex marriage | No Responses »
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Gay-rights advocates are preparing a lawsuit alleging that the state is violating the equal protection rights of same-sex couples by not passing a civil-unions law. Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai’i yesterday said they would bring the lawsuit after the state House voted on Friday to indefinitely postpone action on civil unions this session.
The lawsuit will be based on a 1993 Hawai’i Supreme Court ruling which held that denying same-sex couples the ability to marry was a violation of their equal-protection rights under the state Constitution.
Voters approved a constitutional amendment in 1998 that gave the state Legislature the right to define marriage — and lawmakers have defined it as between a man and a woman — so gay-rights advocates are unable to claim a right to marry.
Full Story from the Honolulu Advertiser
Click here for gay marriage resources in Hawaii.
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Posted in civil unions, Gay Marriage, hawaii, hi, lawsuit, marriage equality, same sex marriage | No Responses »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
A simultaneous legal challenge to the ban on same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships is being prepared by gay human rights group OutRage!, this week.
It comes after heterosexual couple Tom Freeman and Katherine Doyle filed an application for a civil partnership at Islington registry office last November. They were rejected because, under UK law, civil partnerships are open to only same-sex couples. This legal exclusion mirrors the way civil marriage is available solely to heterosexual partners. They say the decision is “discriminatory and perpetuates legal inequality.”
Now, Outrage! has the support of legal expert, Professor Robert Wintemute, Professor of Human Rights Law at Kings College in London, who has agreed to take on the case.
Full Story from the Pink Paper
Click here for gay marriage resources in England.
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Posted in civil partnerships, england, Gay Marriage, lawsuit, marriage equality, same sex marriage, straight couple, uk, united kingdom | No Responses »
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
In spite of their recent set-back, LGBT activists in New Jersey continue to push forward with their efforts to extend marriage to same-sex couples The New Jersey State Senate voted 20-14 earlier this month against a bill that would have allowed gays and lesbians to marry in the Garden State. While many supporters left Trenton devastated, Steven Goldstein, chair and chief executive director of Garden State Equality, reiterated his vow to move forward.
“In no way is this back to the drawing board,” he told EDGE. “The community has moved seamlessly and so rapidly towards the next phase, which is winning marriage equality in court. In order to win in a court of law, we have to win in the court of public opinion.”
Goldstein’s organization continues to work alongside Lambda Legal to mount a legal challenge. The state Supreme Court ruled in 2006 it was unconstitutional to treat same-sex couples differently than their straight couples. Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal, hopes to have similar success in light of the state Senate’s vote.
Full Story from Edge Boston
Click here for gay marriage resources in New Jersey.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in court, garden state equality, Gay Marriage, lawsuit, marriage equality, new jersey, nj, same sex marriage | No Responses »
Friday, January 15th, 2010
A District of Columbia Superior Court Judge has dismissed a lawsuit aimed at putting marriage equality in the District of Columbia to a vote. In September, a group led by an Anti- Gay Maryland preacher, Bishop Harry Jackson, had asked the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics to approve a ballot measure establishing that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in the District of Columbia.”
However, finding that that such a referendum would violate the D.C. Human Rights Act by discriminating against gays and lesbians, the board decided to deny that request and Jackson sued, arguing that the Human Rights Act could not be used to stop citizens from putting ballot initiatives to a vote. Earlier this month Yesterday Thirty-nine Republican legislators, including 37 members of the House and two senators, also filed an amicus brief to Jackson’s lawsuit and were supporting a public vote on the issue.
Yesterday, Judge Judith N. Macaluso ruled in favor of a District motion asking the suit be dropped and agreed with Board of Elections and Ethics decision, saying the board’s action were justified because the initiative would in effect authorize and “ostracize a disfavored minority in violation of District of Columbia law.”
Full Story from Lez Get Real
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in anti gay, dismissed, district of columbia, Gay Marriage, lawsuit, marriage equality, same sex marriage, washington dc | No Responses »
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Although gay marriage will soon be taking place in Washington DC (so long as Congress does not block it, which they are not expected to do), opponents of same-sex marriage have filed suit against the District of Columbia over the DC Board of Elections and Ethics decision to not let gay marriage become a ballot issue.
One the same day that Mayor Fenty was signing the new gay marriage law, the District filed a motion (found below) to have the lawsuit dismissed.
In the 46-page motion, lawyers for the District argue that the DC Board of Elections and Ethics was correct in rejecting the ballot measure in that it violated the DC Human Rights Act by discriminating against GLBT people. The DC Code does not permit initiatives that “authorize discrimination.”
Full Story from Gay Vantage: http://www.gayvantage.com/gay-news/dc-gay-marriage-lawsuit-2484010018/
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in dismissal, district of columbia, Gay Marriage, lawsuit, washington dc | No Responses »
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management still thinks it can’t authorize health care coverage for the same-sex spouse of a federal court employee even though a judge has ordered the agency to do, a government lawyer said Friday. Elaine Kaplan, the office’s general counsel, said in a statement issued Friday that the Department of Justice has determined that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act supersedes the recent ruling by Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Alex Kozinski. DOMA, as the law is known, prohibits the government from recognizing same-sex unions.
“As the President has explained, the Administration believes that this law is discriminatory and needs to be repealed by Congress,” Kaplan said.
The dispute involves Karen Golinski, a staff lawyer at the 9th Circuit’s San Francisco headquarters. Earlier this year and again last month, Kozinski ruled that Golinski is entitled to enroll her wife in her employer-sponsored health plan because the court has a policy prohibiting discrimination against gay workers.
Full Story from The LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-gay-marriage-federal-employees,0,1977764.story
Click here for gay marriage resources.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in benefits, federal employee, gay, judge, lawsuit, lesbian, obama administration, partner, refused | No Responses »
