Speaking at the International Gay & Lesbian Leadership Conference, Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean said his party needs to work harder to get more LGBT candidates on the ballot.- Lambda Legal submitted papers to a California Court of Appeal, urging them to uphold a jury decision that found former Poway High School students were severely harassed because they are gay and lesbian. The jury had found that school officials took “minimal or no action at all” when the students reported the incidents, and determined the harassment was so “severe and pervasive” that they awarded a combined $300,000 to the plaintiffs.
- Eight gay and lesbian couples in Connecticut appealed to the state Supreme Court for the right to marry. The Court may or may not hear the case. A lower court had dismissed it earlier this year, saying the couples already had equal rights under the state’s civil union law.
- The Butler County Court of Common Pleas in Ohio dismissed a lawsuit brought by a legislator seeking to take away the domestic partner benefits of employees of Miami University. Lambda Legal argued that Ohio’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage does not apply to the university because it concerns only marriage and not domestic partnership benefits.
- A Rhode Island lesbian couple who were married in Massachusetts are seeking a divorce in their home state. They married just before Massachusetts banned out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying there. It is unclear whether Rhode Island courts have jurisdiction in this matter, as Rhode Island law does not specify whether it bans or allows same-sex marriages.
- In another case showing inter-state legal tangles, a lesbian who fled Vermont for Virginia to avoid a court order granting joint custody of her daughter to her former partner has been fined by the Rutland Family Court in Vermont.
Around the world:
- A judge in Sao Paulo, Brazil has let two gay men adopt a child for the first time in the country’s history. (Lesbian couples have been granted adoption rights twice before.) One man had already adopted the five-year-old girl, and the name of his partner was then added to the birth certificate.
- Same-sex marriages are increasing in Canada, according to new statistics, even as the government moves ahead with a promise to allow a vote on whether to reconsider the 2005 marriage legislation.
- The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the government must register same-sex marriages of Israeli citizens performed abroad, giving them the same rights as other married couples. Same-sex marriages still cannot be performed within Israel itself. Religious liberals hope the ruling will reduce the power of rabbinical leaders in a country where the only recognized marriage ceremonies are religious ones.
- Less than two weeks after South Africa’s National Assembly approved same-sex marriages, the country’s constitutional court ruled that same-sex partners should have the same inheritance rights as opposite-sex couples. The law takes effect immediately.