Massachusetts' same-sex couples predicted to reach parity in 2013

If present trends continue in Massachusetts, same-sex couples will reach parity in marriage rates with different-sex couples in 2013, a mere nine years after such couples first were allowed to marry. ...

Bay Windows • Nov 17, 2011

Fourth question erupts in Prop. 8

The court battle over Proposition 8 has escalated yet another step -- now over a First Amendment issue. Two days after attorneys for proponents of California's ban on same-sex marriage filed a motion seeking to have a videotape of the landmark Proposition 8 trial sequestered from public availability, attorneys for same-sex couples challenging the ban filed a motion seeking the tape's "immediate r...

Bay Windows • Apr 20, 2011

DOJ steps back from GLAD's DOMA case

The Department of Justice followed Wednesday's withdrawal from two DOMA cases in the Second Circuit, including GLAD's Pedersen v. OPM by notifying the clerk of the First Circuit that they will also "cease to defend" the two consolidated DOMA cases, Gill v. Office of Personnel Management and Massachusetts v. HHS. The DOJ has not sent a letter to the Congress declining to defend DOMA in toto in the...

Bay Windows • Feb 27, 2011

DOMA decisions released

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 ...

Bay Windows • Jul 8, 2010

Prop. 8 federal trial likely to conclude in June

The trial in the federal lawsuit against Proposition 8 is likely to finally wrap up in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on June 16, when Judge Vaughn Walker has tentatively scheduled closing arguments. The trial has been paused since testimony concluded on Jan. 27 because Walker said he wanted to study the record before hearing the attorneys' final statements....

Bay Windows • May 4, 2010

EQCA: Ripeness Is All

Those who insist on returning to the ballot in 2010 should explain how EQCA's analysis is wrong, rather than merely serenade us with stirring rhetoric. Strategy is not a dirty word, and enthusiasm is not enough. None of us with a stake in this fight wants to wait. Every day that I am separated from my own foreign partner is painful. Unfortunately, wanting is not having. There is a great deal of w...

Bay Windows • Aug 28, 2009

60,000 Mainers sign on to defend marriage equality

Marriage equality organization Maine Freedom to Marry announced today that 60,000 Mainers have signed pledges defending the state's marriage equality bill. "Volunteers, ready and willing to go door to door and speak neighbor to neighbor to protect marriage equality, are the fuel of our campaign to defeat Question 1," Jesse Connolly, Campaign Manager of Maine Freedom to Marry, said in a statement ...

Bay Windows • Jul 31, 2009

Maine campaign heats up

The Gill Action Fund, a Colorado-based LGBT political action fund that, according to the Los Angeles Times, contributed more than $350,000 to California's failed "No on Prop 8" campaign, has not yet contributed to Maine Freedom to Marry. Joanne Kron, spokesperson for Gill Action Fund, said the fund does not comment on its donations to state campaigns....

Bay Windows • Jul 23, 2009

Vermont House deals a blow to equal marriage opponents

The Vermont House voted 52 to 96 Thursday to defeat a measure seeking to toss the same-sex marriage question to voters. The amendment was an effort to stop passage of a bill that cleared the Senate last week. The bill would allow gay couples to obtain marriage licenses the same as heterosexual couples....

Bay Windows • Apr 2, 2009

Vermont Senate passes marriage equality bill

Today's debate lasted just over an hour and was marked by considerable decorum. But behind the scenes, there was also considerable drama. The son of Republican state Sen. Kevin Mullin came out as gay in a Vermont daily newspaper today, and it was Mullin who offered an amendment to put off the vote on the bill and, instead, put the issue before voters. That amendment was struck down 11 to 19, and M...

Bay Windows • Mar 23, 2009

MassEquality's Solomon to lead Equality California's marriage effort

After successfully leading the effort to preserve marriage equality in Massachusetts and overseeing his organization's transition from a single-issue political campaign into a broad-based LGBT political organization, MassEquality executive director Marc Solomon is leaving to head up Equality California's (EQCA) effort to restore marriage equality in that state....

Bay Windows • Mar 9, 2009

Second wind for marriage movement

The goal of the campaign is to secure equal civil marriage rights for same-sex couples in the four New England states that have yet to grant them: Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island and New Hampshire....

Bay Windows • Dec 4, 2008