Washington today became the 17th state to ban discrimination towards LGBT people. Kudos to those who worked so hard to have this bill passed.
In other political news this week, a Maryland circuit court ruled that denying marriage to same-sex couples is unconstitutional under the state constitution. It’s unclear what will happen as this ruling works its way up through the Maryland court system.
I’m glad there was some good news, since there was also some bad. In Virginia, legislators approved putting a proposal to ban same-sex marriage on the November ballot.
On the federal level, the U. S. reversed its policy and chose to support an Iranian initiative that would deny United Nations consultative status to two organizations working to protect the rights of LGBT people. According to the New York Times, nearly 3,000 nongovernmental organizations have consultative status, which enables them to distribute documents to meetings of the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council. Led by the Human Rights Campaign, 40 organizations have written to Condoleeza Rice demanding an explanation.
Finally, in a look ahead, the New Jersey Supreme Court will hear Lewis v. Harris (aka the Marriage Equality Case) on February 15 at 10 a.m. You can listen to the live Webcast by visiting NJ Courts Online and clicking Webcast.