Two gay groups will be on opposite sides of a protest at the Manchester Grand Hyatt on Saturday afternoon.
The LGBT group called Sleep With The Right People! Support Hotel Workers! will be demonstrating from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. tomorrow outside the hotel at 1 Market Place in downtown San Diego.
The object of their scorn? GOProud, a national organization of gay conservatives and their allies, which...
Six gay couples in Hawaii are filing a lawsuit Thursday asking for the same rights as married couples, three weeks after Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a same-sex civil unions measure.
The lawsuit doesn't seek the titles of "marriage" or "civil unions" for gay partners. Instead, it requests that the court system extend them the benefits and responsibilities of marriage based on the Hawaii Constitution'...
Only 0.3 percent of the newshole in the surveyed media was devoted to same-sex marriage in 2009. For perspective, 2009 included the California Supreme Court's ruling on Proposition 8, the Iowa Supreme Court's approval of same-sex marriage, marriage battles in Maine and Washington, and the approval of same-sex marriage in Washington, D.C.
Same-sex marriage stories did the best in newspapers, whe...
National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association • Jul 28, 2010
Check out the news from the South Bend City Council meeting. Meanwhile, Bil Browning, founder of the Bilerico Project, was also in Indianapolis today. He posted the following on Bilerico and gave us permission to cross-post it on NOMTourTracker.com. Check out the sickening sign that NOM supporter Larry Adams created with two nooses as "the solution to gay marriage." Also, watch the interview that...
Discussion of Walker's sexual identity came to the fore in February when the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Walker is gay. The story appeared beneath the headline: "Judge being gay a nonissue during Prop. 8 trial." Walker did not comment on his sexuality in the story, and he has neither confirmed nor denied being gay in subsequent reports.
Walker has been characterized as a judge who belie...
The problem, of course, is that the court's ruling means that the only way to challenge the Civil Union Act in court is to initiate a new action in the Superior Court, hoping to push things forward quickly to compile a factual record and, perhaps, a ruling that the Civil Union Act is unconstitutional, which the state would undoubtedly appeal (can any one doubt that Gov. Christie would demand an ap...
Today the ACLU announced new test-case litigation in Montana, seeking a court order to the state to establish a domestic partnership system for same-sex couples. This was the first affirmative test-case state constitutional litigation to be filed in a state that has an anti-gay marriage amendment in place specifically seeking an equal status to marriage for same-sex couples. It marks a new appro...
We got some slightly-encouraging news this week in the form of a new survey showing that 51% of California voters support gay's freedom to marry. But don't get too worked up over it: for one thing, a study last month showed that surveys...
Lawyers representing the state argued that the measure was needed to cut a ballooning deficit.
But Sedwick chided lawmakers for placing the budgetary burden on gay workers.
"Contrary to the state's suggestion, it is not equitable to lay the burden of the state budgetary shortfall on homosexual employees, any more than on any other distinct class, such as employees with green eyes or red hair," S...
The Justice Department has not yet announced whether it will appeal these decisions. Because these cases are just at the trial court level, the government has an automatic right of appeal, but such a decision is likely to be politically unpopular. By appealing the case, the Obama administration would be choosing to argue that DOMA should stand, a stance that many long-term supporters are likely to...
One of the most interesting findings of the poll was the split between Latino Catholics and their Latino Protestant brothers and sisters. Both groups had warmed to the idea of marriage equality for gays and lesbians, but Latino Catholics outpaced Latino Protestants in acceptance of the idea (57 percent to 22 percent respectively).
In a column in the Washington Post, Joseph M. Palacios, an Adjunct...
It's been a long, slow summer for those waiting for a verdict in the legal dispute over Proposition 8. Californians went to the polls and voted Proposition 8 into law, overturning a state Supreme Court decision that said gays have a constitutional right to marry.
We check in with Scott Shafer of KQED who has attended nearly every day of the trial. In addition to being the daily host of the Califo...
The survey highlighted shifting attitudes among blacks, divisions among Latinos and the strong influence of clergy on their congregations' views on gay rights.
Results showed that Latinos, at 30%, were more likely than white Californians, at 22%, to report becoming more supportive of homosexual rights. African Americans, meanwhile, resembled Californians in general, with 26% saying they had becom...
In Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, the judge held that the act's divergent treatment of same-sex and heterosexual couples violates the equal protection principles implicit in the Fifth Amendment. The court asked whether Congress had a legitimate basis for treating same-sex couples differently. The unambiguous answer was "No."
How about procreation? No. Infertile persons are permitted to m...
"Although it should come as no surprise, our research confirms clergy and religious groups continue to play an influential role in policy debates about the rights of gay and lesbian people," said Daniel Cox, Director of Research for Public Religion Research Institute. "But one of the most interesting dynamics uncovered in this survey was the significant number of respondents who report they would ...
Researchers do not know why voting results for same-sex marriage initiatives fail to match polls, Egan said, but DiCamillo said one reason for the discrepancy in 2008 was that Prop. 8 proponents launched a successful campaign that boosted voter turnout in their favor.
Marc Solomon, the marriage director of Equality California, which works to secure legal protections for gay people, said that the ...
You could excuse supporters of gay marriage for doing a double take at the findings of a just-released Field Poll. The survey shows 51% of registered voters supporting same sex unions and 42% opposed. 7% had no opinion. Those are the exact same numbers Field found in May of 2008 ... a few months before voters banned same sex marriage by passing Prop. 8 52-48%. What gives? Is the poll inaccurate? ...
California voters support legalizing same-sex marriage 51 to 42 percent, a new Field Poll finds.
The survey found that most white and Latino voters support same-sex marriage, while most black and Asian voters oppose it. Seven percent of voters offered no opinion.
The poll was released as gay-marriage supporters continue to knock on doors in the Inland area and elsewhere to discuss the issue wit...
John Marcotte had a revelation after he voted against Proposition 8, the 2008 California initiative that banned same-sex marriage -- in part, its backers said, to preserve traditional marriage.
If saving traditional marriage was the aim, then there has to be a better way, thought the Sacramento father of two. "Don't stop gay people from getting married; stop straight people from getting divorced!...
Judge Tauro was willing to toss the federal marriage act even after applying the most lax constitutional test to it. Based upon his questions, it looks like Judge Walker is noodling these days over which constitutional standard to apply to his analysis of the legitimacy of Prop 8. If he takes the Tauro route, and I won't be shocked if he does, Prop 8 is doomed -- perhaps even before the United Sta...
In less than two decades, from 1993 to today, the controversial issue has ripened -- in federal court, at the state level, in political discourse, you name it -- to the point where a definitive declaration from the United States Supreme Court may (relatively) soon be at hand. Seventeen years sounds like a long time in "people years." But in the timeline of the law, it's virtually a blink....
Nearly as significant as the decision itself is the political affiliation of the judge who made it: 79-year-old Joseph Tauro, the longest-serving appointee of Richard Nixon. Why is this significant? Because while the recent confirmation hearings for Elena Kagan dwelt on whether ''activist'' liberal judges appointed by Democrats would trample legal precedent, the judges who have begun the constitut...
Although the past year has been frustrating to liberals and libertarians on many levels, one exception is in the increasing willingness of governments around the world to recognize same-sex marriage, as Argentina determined to do yesterday. There are now about 250 million people worldwide living in jurisdictions which provide for marriage equity, as this colorful chart will help to demonstrate....
Lawsuits over gay marriage have escalated on the nation's two coasts, energizing advocates on both sides and bringing the legal battle over same-sex marriage closer to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Final arguments in a constitutional test of California's ban on such unions were held a month ago this week. A verdict in the case heard by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco coul...
Argentina legalized same-sex marriage Thursday, becoming the first country in Latin America to declare that gays and lesbians have all the legal rights, responsibilities and protections that marriage brings to heterosexual couples.
After a marathon debate in Argentina's senate, 33 lawmakers voted in favor, 27 against and 3 abstained in a vote that ended after 4 a.m. Since the lower house already ...
Argentinian politicians acted in the face of "polls showing that nearly 70 percent of Argentines support giving gay people the same marital rights as heterosexuals." That's what is most striking here: this is not happening in some small Northern European country renown for its ahead-of-the-curve social progressivism (though gay marriage or civil unions are now the norm in Western Europe). Just...
The tone was cautiously optimistic at a panel discussion held last week by the San Francisco Bar Association to discuss the federal court challenge to Proposition 8.
Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, moderated the discussion with San Francisco Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese Stewart, Santa Clara University Professor Margaret Russell, and the Recorder fed...
Now, in practical terms, what does this mean? Well, say you are a couple where one partner earns substantially more than the other. You'll have noticed that your California tax bills went down with community property. Now the same will apply to the federal government. For example, say "Adam" earns $50,000 as a public school teacher. His husband "Bill" earns $150,000 as a investment hot-shot or som...
Impatience for the Perry v. Schwarzenegger ruling is reaching a fever pitch, with a rumor spreading on Thursday that drew a small crowd to the courthouse ... only to discover that Walker's chambers were closed.
The excitement was ...
As it stands, there are only three ways to get rid of DOMA nationwide. Barring appeals by Obama's Department of Justice, the first option is to get another forty-nine sets of similar rulings by federal judges in forty-nine more states. While it's true that these Massachusetts rulings would serve as a precedent for subsequent rulings by other federal judges, those judges aren't bound by them in the...
After pre-trial depositions, many pro-Prop 8 witnesses backed out of testifying, citing fear of reprisals in response to their testimony. Anti-Prop 8 lawyer David Boies is asked what he did to scare them off during the depositions:...
Will Judge Tauro's decision be appealed? Everyone expects it to, just as we presume Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling on Prop 8 - which we anticipate any day now - to be as well. The right-wingers at NOM even went so far as to pray "with God's help" there will be five U.S. Supreme Court justices to uphold Prop 8, and their press release over the DOMA ruling yesterday was equally hysterical. Expect this...
Taken together, it seems clear that Tauro finds that a distinction based on marriage is permissible. But one that is based on sexual orientation is not. This would seem to suggest that because states can determine marriage laws (Commonwealth), it can either allow or refuse same-sex marriage (until otherwise restricted). So those legally married same-sex couples in Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut,...
Well, unfortunately, this federal court decision really doesn't affect us at all. In theory, the ruling only covers Massachusetts for the time being. The case was brought on behalf of the state, and unless and until it moves up through the 1st Circuit and possibly to the Supreme Court, the case only has persuasive precedential value. For now, DOMA is still valid in California.
That being said, th...
Walker's chambers were closed Thursday and expected to be closed Friday; he had not told any of the parties in the closely watched case that a ruling was coming....
As we await the ruling from Judge Vaughn Walker on Perry v. Schwarzenegger, we just received word about a decision in two marriage equality suits. A federal judge in Massachusetts just ruled that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law passed in 1996 that bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage and enables states to withhold recognition of same-sex marriages performed in ot...
In an enormous victory for same-sex marriage, a federal judge in Boston today (Thursday, July 8) ruled, in two separate cases, that a critical part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional.
In one challenge brought by the state of Massachusetts, Judge Joseph Tauro ruled that Congress violated the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when it passed DOMA and took from the ...
The coalition behind the No on Prop 8 campaign in 2008 is dissolving.
The executive committee of Equality For All announced Monday, June 28 that it had voted "to formally wind up operations and dissolve the corporation." The announcement came in an e-mail blast from Cary Davidson, Equality for All's counsel.
Equality for All is the coalition of LGBT and allied organizations against Prop 8, the m...
You can find out where your nearest gathering location is and more information on how you can participate by visiting www.equalrightsfoundation.org....
Sacramento's Stonewall Democratic Club has responded with the launching of the website, http://www.StopAndrewPugno.com, calling on the LGBT community to help stop Pugno's political aspirations in their tracks.
"We're certainly not excited to see Pugno on the ballot but it was completely expected," said Stonewall President Chris Moore, the creator of the website. Moore is also the new deputy direc...
Even if Karger is completely serious about the White House -- and he seems to be -- Karger's still an openly gay man. Even though 50% of Americans claim they would vote for a gay candidate, he doesn't stand much of a chance when pitted against heavy weights like Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee. And Karger knows it will be a rough road.
"When I started, I gave myself a 25% chance," he admitted. "I wa...
I spoke with Donald L. Bentz, Treasurer of Equality Hawaii, about three hours after the veto. Bentz had been treasurer for the Human Rights Task Force in Tampa, Florida and dealt with two ballot initiatives there. He had just finished singing along to the YouTube song "Fuck You, Fuck You Very Much" at a post veto-gathering.
"Right now we're very angry. We're disappointed. The governor basically ...
Gov. Lingle concluded her press conference with a call for voters to decide on this issue. Yet I can't think of anything less in line with the values of America than putting the civil rights of one group up for a vote. She added that "hopefully over the course of time," citizens would see her decision in a positive light, and reflective of the values of Hawaii.
On the contrary, over the course of...
Rauch makes it sound like the desire to have the US Supreme Court step in and enforce the Constitution when a state is ignoring it is somehow "absolutist" or undermines the courts. This is a ridiculous claim which flies in the face of nearly 200 years of judicial precedent. Going all the way back to 1819 and the case McCulloch v. Maryland, the US Supreme Court has held that the Constitution is sup...
There's still no word from Judge Walker on Perry v. Schwarzenegger -- those pins and needles we're all sitting on are starting to hurt! But that hasn't stopped folks from reflecting back on the case and making optimis...
While Preston said he feels his views have been well-represented in the pro-marriage testimony and lawyers' arguments offered during the Proposition 8 trial, he knows that, no matter how the judge rules in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the fight will continue, most likely up to the United States Supreme Court. He's ready to continue the fight, volunteering for the San Francisco LGBT Community Center an...
ELENA KAGAN uttered neither the word "gay" nor "marriage" in her opening statement at the Senate confirmation hearings on her nomination to the Supreme Court, but she addressed the issue nonetheless. No, she didn't say how she will vote when gay marriage comes before the court, as it may soon. What she did say was this:
"The Supreme Court, of course, has the responsibility of ensuring that our go...
Boutrous is arguing that this case further buttressed several fundamental arguments they are making, that sexual orientation is immutable and that the LGBTs are a class that can be protected.
It will be interesting to see what if anything the defendants send to Judge Walker about Christian Legal Society v. Martinez....
