- Servicemembers Legal Defense Network released a legal guide for “LGBT service members, veterans, future recruits, and their families,” with an overview of laws and policies related to military service following the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. It includes quite a bit of information related to benefits for children of servicemembers, as well as benefits still unavailable to same-sex couples because of DOMA. (Interestingly, some benefits, like military family housing, may be available to servicemembers with children, but not to legally married same-sex couples without children. And let me quickly add that that’s not a reason to go have kids.)
- The Williams Institute of UCLA has released new findings from the 2008 General Social Survey (GSS), “a national probability survey representative of the U.S. population,’ showing that 42 percent of LGB respondents had experienced employment discrimination at some point in their lives, and 27 percent had experienced employment discrimination in the five-year period prior to the survey.
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) outlined concrete steps toward review of the Food and Drug Administration’s ban on blood donation by men who have sex with men.
- The Supreme Court of California said it would hear the Proposition 8 case, Perry v. Brown, on September 6, the first day of the court’s fall calendar. It will hear oral arguments on whether proponents of Prop 8 have standing under state law to defend their initiatives in court.
- Marriage equality in New York made its mark in two lawsuits. Opponents filed a lawsuit against the marriage law, claiming the legislature did not follow proper procedure in enacting it. The state attorney general separately filed a brief in support of repealing the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), using New York’s new marriage law as a positive example.
Around the world:
- India’s first lesbian couple to be legally married have gotten police protection after death threats from family members and local villagers.
- Italy’s Chamber of Deputies voted against legislation to protect LGBT people from discrimination.
