The law firm hired to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) has withdrawn from its contract to do so, but the lawyer who was to take the case has left the firm and plans to defend it from elsewhere. On the other hand, the Senate committee considering a bill to repeal DOMA may just […]
Because today is the Day of Silence, an annual observance to raise awareness of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment, I’ll point out my piece over at Keen News Service on court cases sparked by the event. The Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) and the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) (which would allow people to sponsor same-sex partners
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last night that two gay men did not have the right to a reissued birth certificate for the Louisiana-born child they adopted in New York—a birth certificate that would have listed them both as parents (and a common practice for adoptive families). The state had denied the fathers
Pentagon officials told a House subcommittee that it may certify to Congress by mid-summer that it is ready to implement repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. A new study (PDF) from the Williams Institute of UCLA has found that roughly 9 million adults in the U.S. identify as LGBT, with an estimated 19 million reporting they
The U.S. and 85 other countries backed a United Nations declaration calling for an end to violence and human rights abuses on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also issued a statement in support of ending such persecution and discrimination. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today denied a request from plaintiffs in California’s Proposition 8 case to lift a stay on a lower court ruling and allow same-sex couples to marry while the case is being heard. That means no wedding bells in the Golden State for the foreseeable future. I
I’m going to skip my usual Weekly Political Update since I’ve been playing hooky with my son all afternoon. His school had a half day and we’ve been enjoying the miraculous spring weather. I’ll leave you with one political item for the weekend, though: my piece at Keen News Service about a recent Delaware Supreme Court
School Issues The New York Times reports on parents who are objecting to inclusion of same-sex families, gay people in history, and other LGBT content in school curricula. If you read the above, you should also read the great piece in the Advocate by Stuart Biegel, a member of the education and law faculty at
A U.S. House panel ordered the House general counsel to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court, even though President Obama recently said his administration would no longer defend it. Members of the U.S. Congress introduced a passel of bills this week designed to protect students from bullying, and including explicit protections on
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-gay hate group, had a first amendment right to protest near the funerals of American soldiers killed in Iraq. U.S. House Speaker John Boehner announced he will convene a bipartisan meeting to determine how Congress can defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in
