The Colorado Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling and said the partner of a man who died in 2004 may inherit his estate, even though the man’s relatives contested the validity of his will.- Lambda Legal argued that the U. S. Court of Appeals should affirm a lower court ruling that Oklahoma’s anti-gay Adoption Invalidation Law is unconstitutional. The law, one of the most restrictive in the country, said Oklahoma could not recognize an adoption by same-sex parents, even if done legally in another state or foreign jurisdiction. It was struck down by the lower court last May.
- Gerry Studds, the first openly gay member of Congress, died this week. Although Studds and his partner married legally in Massachusetts, Studds’ spouse will not receive the congressman’s estimated $114,337 annual pension because the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act bars the federal government from recognizing their marriage.
- Current Massachusetts Governor and presumed presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke last weekend at an event organized by the anti-LGBT Family Research Council. Romney said: “The price of same-sex marriage is paid by the children. What [the judges] ignored is that marriage is not primarily about adults; marriage is about the nurturing and development of children. . . . Every child deserves a mother and a father.” I’d like to think he’s just lost the vote of every child-free opposite-sex couple.
This week also brought out a few pieces of relevant research:
- The legalization of same-sex marriage would have a positive effect on the economy, according to a study issued by the UCLA Law School’s Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy. (Full text here (PDF link).) If every state legalized it, it would generate $2 billion for the wedding industry alone.
The report also concluded that marriage equality would lead to a net gain for state and federal government budgets, and would reduce the number of uninsured people in the U. S., easing healthcare costs for the government and employers. It would also make it easier for businesses to transfer employees and create consistent benefits and policies now that some jurisdictions are recognizing same-sex relationships.
It occurs to me that organizations such as MomsRising and Families USA, which are fighting for affordable, flexible healthcare and parental benefits (among other things), could be more active in supporting same-sex relationship recognition. They are trying to present healthcare issues and parents’ rights as non-partisan, but in doing so, they seem to be avoiding the highly partisan issue of whether LGBT families deserve the same rights as everyone else. We’re the 800-pound gorilla in the room. A big, pink gorilla.
- The Human Rights Campaign has published its 2006 Congressional Scorecard, which “rates members of Congress on important votes and their support of critical legislation taken during the 109th legislative session.”