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IA: Baker Refuses to Make Wedding Cake for Lesbian Couple

Monday, November 14th, 2011

Lesbian couple Trina Vodraska and Janelle Sievers went to Victoria Childress for their wedding cake. At a taste-testing appointment they were told that she wouldn’t do it for them because it conflicts with ther Christian beliefs.

Said Childress: “I didn’t do the cake because of my convictions for their lifestyle. It is my right as a business owner. It is my right, and it’s not to discriminate against them. It’s not so much to do with them, it’s to do with me and my walk with God and what I will answer (to) him for.”

The couple says it was degrading: “It was like she chastised us for wanting to do business with her. I know Jesus loves me. I didn’t need her to tell me that. I didn’t go there for that. I just wanted to go there for a cake.”

Full Story from Towleroad.com

Click here for gay wedding resources in Iowa.

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Tags: baker, christian, iowa, lesbian couple, wedding cake

Profile: Lesbian Couple on Mercer Island Wants Full Marriage Equality

Monday, November 14th, 2011

In 2009, Washington voters showed their support for same sex couples by expanding the domestic partnership laws in Washington.

Recently, supporters of gay marriage have formed a coalition made up of gay rights, labor, civil rights and even religious groups to send a message to state legislators that “Everything but Marriage” is just not enough.

Robin and Stephen Boehler of Mercer Island have been happily married for 32 years. “Getting married to my wife Robin may have been the best thing that ever happened to me,” said Boehler.

Full Story from My Fox Spokane

Click here for gay wedding resources in Washington State.

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Tags: lesbian couple, marriage equality, mercer island

Lesbian Couple Wins Dream Wedding, But Marriage Illegal in Home State

Friday, November 11th, 2011

On Friday — 11-11-11 — Sheila Barnett and Melissa Patrick will walk down an aisle and stand in front of a giant, crescent-shaped window at the Crowne Plaza in Manhattan, look each other in the eyes and say, “I do.”

The same-sex couple from Florida was one of 11 couples to win the hotel’s “Marry Me 11-11-11 Wedding Contest” on Facebook, which gave away dream weddings on that once-in-a-century day that’s supposed to be lucky for love: Nov. 11, 2011.

Yet as Barnett and Patrick packed their nearly identical dresses for the ceremony (Patrick will wear white, Barnett, purple), they tried not to think about one fact: when they return home, their marriage won’t be legal in Florida.

Full Story from

Click here for gay wedding resources in Florida.

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Tags: dream wedding, florida, lesbian couple, new york

UK: Transgender Lesbian Couple Marries

Saturday, October 29th, 2011

It’s a story of lifetime commitment that crosses gender lines: Two British trans lesbians married after one of them had gender reassignment surgery, reported British newspaper the Daily Mail on Oct. 27.

The couple had been living as a lesbian pair for years, but neither had undergone gender reassignment surgery until now, the newspaper account said. Both Jenny-Anne Bishop and Elen Heart had previously been married to women and had fathered children before beginning to live and dress as women.

When they first met in 2004, Jenny-Anne, now 65, and Elen, now 68, were both gay men. Later, they both identified as transgender and began to live as women, considering themselves to be lesbians. Jenny-Anne eventually had gender reassignment surgery, and the two wed.

Full Story from Edge Boston

Click here for gay wedding resources in the United Kingdom.

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Tags: lesbian couple, married, transgender, united kingdom

NC: Lesbian Couple Arrested in Marriage Equality Sit-In

Saturday, October 15th, 2011

A lesbian couple twice refused a marriage license by the Buncombe County Register of Deeds refused to leave the government office today and initiated a sit-in. The two were arrested.

Rev. Kathryn Cartledge and Elizabeth Eve, her partner of 30 years, were among the first couples to request a license last weekas a part of the Coalition for Southern Equality’s “We Do” Campaign. They were the last couple [to] request a license for a second time today and refused to leave the office after their denial.

The two were arrested at about 4 p.m. after being asked to leave and continuing their sit-in. They have been charged with trespassing and were immediately released by local law enforcement.

Full Story from LGBTQ Nation

Click here for gay wedding resources in North Carolina.

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Tags: lesbian couple, marriage equality, north carolina, sit-in

NJ: Civil Union Makes Lesbian Couple “Less Than”

Saturday, September 17th, 2011

Erica and Tevonda are plaintiffs in a Lambda Legal civil unions lawsuit that was launched earlier this year. They’ve been together for four years and are raising their baby boy, Teverico, in North Plainfield. They were forced to get a second-parent adoption to allow Erica to be recognized as Teverico’s mother because, even though Erica is in a civil union with Tevonda, she’s not automatically granted that right.

A recent Rutgers-Eagleton Poll found that a majority of New Jersey voters support legalizing same-sex marriage, with 52% in favor, 32% against and 16% undecided. However, given the choice between civil unions and same-sex marriage, 58% said they support civil unions.

The New Jersey Legislature passed a bill providing for civil unions and recognizing other states’ civil unions in 2006 following a court ruling that the state’s domestic partnership law failed to offer adequate benefits. That same charge has been made against the civil unions law, an opinion that has found support with the New Jersey State Bar Association and the Civil Union Review Commission created by the Civil Union Act who have both returned reports that civil unions are failing to make the grade.

Full Story from Care2

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Tags: civil unions, lawsuit, lesbian couple, new jersey

Indonesia: Authorities Forcibly Separate Lesbian Couple

Friday, August 26th, 2011

In the Indonesian province of Aceh, authorities have forced a lesbian couple to have their marriage annulled and sign a separation agreement — but their local police chief told them they really deserve beheading.

The women, whose names were not revealed, were married legally by an Islamic cleric a few months ago, with one of them passing as a man, the BBC reports. Neighbors suspected they were both women, however, and reported them to police in the province, which enforces some aspects of Muslim Sharia law.

Full Story from The Advocate

Click here for gay wedding resources in Indonesia.

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Tags: authorities, indonesia, lesbian couple

IN: Stage Collapse Lawsuit Focuses On State Treatment of Married Lesbian Couple

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

The first lawsuits filed over the Indiana State Fair stage collapse could challenge the state’s rules on same sex marriage.

Attorney Kenneth Allen said his clients were recently married in Hawaii, a state that allows same sex civil unions. Beth Urschel was injured in the stage collapse. Her spouse, Tammy VanDam, died from the incident.

Allen said the lawsuits address a legal gray area in Indiana. “Tammy was her wife and Beth is entitled to be treated as any spouse should be treated: fairly, equitably and justly under the law,” he said Monday. “That’s something we intend to challenge because as it stands now, Indiana law does not recognize her as a spouse and we expect to change that.”

Full Story from WBEZ

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Tags: indiana, lawsuit, lesbian couple, stage collapse

CO: Bi-National Lesbian Couple Gets Reprieve

Friday, August 19th, 2011

Violeta and Sujey Pando walked into an immigration courtroom in downtown Denver on Friday knowing that Sujey was on the verge of being deported.

The illegal immigrant from Mexico had been stopped for a traffic infraction in 2008, and Friday represented the last day of what’s turned into a three-year deportation process.

The lesbian couple walked away on Friday with a five-month reprieve, a victory for them made possible, in part, by a decision the day before by the Obama administration to try to prioritize the nearly 300,000 pending deportations in the country today.

Full Story from 9 News

Click here for gay wedding resources in Colorado.

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Tags: binational, colorado, immigration, lesbian couple

Lesbian Couple Fighting Deportation from the United States

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

One of the most insidious aspects of the Defense of Marriage Act is that it precludes married same-sex couples from petitioning for a green card under the U.S. Federal immigration law; a right which bi-national heterosexual couples enjoy. The result has caused hardship to tens of thousands of gay and lesbian Americans in bi-national relationships.

Since President Bill Clinton signed the law into effect, LGBT activists and a core group of Democratic Representatives have battled for legislation to amend the current Immigration and Naturalization Act to include what has been termed “permanent partners.” The current incarnation of that attempt is in the for of the Uniting American Families Act, (UAFA) introduced into Congress and championed by Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT.)

On April 22nd, 2009 Shirley Tan a mother of 12 year old twin boys, who had been in a 20 year relationship with Jay Mercado, was detained by ICE. With mere days to deportation, through the assistance of her Congresswoman, Jackie Speier and a rare private bill (#867) by Senator Feinstein, Tan was able to remain in the U.S.A., serving as the impetus for her testimony at a Senate Judiciary Hearing on UAFA on June 03, 2009.

Full Story from Gay USA

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Tags: defense of marriage act, deportation, lesbian couple