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Friday, May 16
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Source: ABC News (US) CA marriage case For all practical purposes, the only real change that yesterday's court decision means for California's gay couples is an official piece of paper and a legal ceremony. After all, under the state's domestic partnership laws, same-sex couples already enjoy all the legal rights and protections enjoyed by opposite-sex couples. But for hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples in the state, today's state Supreme Court decision to strike down the ban on gay marriage was a historic and transformative moment. "It changes everything," said...
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Thursday, May 15
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Source: San Francisco Chronicle , Los Angeles Times , San Jose Mercury News CA marriage case San Francisco -- There were whoops of joys and hugs and tears among scores of gay rights advocates and same-sex couples this morning outside the California Supreme Court building in San Francisco as word spread that the justices had cleared the way for gay and lesbian marriages. Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, a gay rights group, ran out of the building on McAllister Street and screamed, "We won!" just after the decision was released at 10 a.m. Many people unfurled California...
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Thursday, May 15
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Source: Washington Blade CA marriage case by Kevin Naff, Washington Blade editor The last five years have been a wild ride for gay and lesbian Americans. There was euphoria in 2003, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas and the Massachusetts high court mandated gay marriage. But those celebrations were tempered by the crushing disappointments a year later when a slew of states approved constitutional bans on marriage. Then the New York and Maryland high courts -- in sometimes harshly written opinions -- rejected arguments for marriage rights. And now the California...
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Thursday, May 15
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CA marriage case San Francisco -- California's highest court today ruled that the state's ban on marriage for same-sex couples is unconstitutional and that state authorities must take steps to grant full equality in marriage to all couples. The court described the right to marry [p 6] as one of the "core substantive rights" for all citizens of California. [T]he substantive right of two adults who share a loving relationship to join together to establish an officially recognized family of their own -- and, if the couple chooses, to raise children within that family -- constitutes...
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Wednesday, May 14
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Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel , Associated Press via San Jose Mercury News CA marriage case SAN FRANCISCO -- California's highest court will release on Thursday an eagerly-anticipated decision on whether the state's constitution requires marriage equality. The justices today posted a notation on the court's Web site that the ruling in the civil rights challenge to the same-sex marriage ban will be posted at 10 a.m. Thursday. Justices heard oral arguments in a series of cases brought by gay and lesbian couples, the city of San Francisco and two gay rights advocacy groups in early March...
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Tuesday, May 13
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Source: Northwest Florida Daily News , WMBB-TV FL anti-gay schools PANAMA CITY -- Saying "the core message here is of tolerance and fairness," a judge ruled today Heather Gillman can wear a t-shirt with pro-gay messages. U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak decided Tuesday the Holmes County School Board violated Heather Gillman’s right to free speech in November and ordered the board to alert students in writing that they are allowed to express their support for the equal treatment of gays in an appropriate and non-disruptive way. Gillman’s shirts included the slogans, “Gay? Fine by me,...
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Tuesday, May 13
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Source: New York Daily News , New York Times blog , Village Voice A lesbian who was booted from the ladies' room at a Greenwich Village restaurant because she looked too much like a man, settled her suit today for $35,000. Under the terms of the settlement, the restaurant will also have its employees receive gender sensitivity training and dress in gender-neutral outfits. The restaurant will also pay $15,000 in legal fees to Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, which filed the suit, asserting that their client was the victim of gender discrimination. Khadijah Farmer of Brooklyn was...
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Wednesday, May 07
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Source: Denver Post , KMGH-TV , Rocky Mountain News Denver -- A lesbian couple who staged a sit-in at the Denver Clerk and Recorder's Office after being denied a marriage license was found guilty today of trespassing. Denver County Judge James Breese sentenced Kate Burns and Sheila Schroeder to 28 hours of community service each and ordered each to pay $41 in court costs, according to the Denver Post . (Other media outlets give slightly different figures for the fines.) The six-woman jury deliberated less than an hour before announcing the guilty verdict. Prosecutors argued that the couple...
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Wednesday, May 07
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Source: Associated Press via Boston.com , ABC6 , Providence Journal PROVIDENCE, RI -- The debate over gay marriage -- and gay divorce -- is taking center stage at the Rhode Island State House today as the issue continues a long and tortuous journey through the state's courts. Lawmakers are talking about several proposed changes to state law. They range from a bill that would allow gay couples to marry, to a constitutional amendment that would do just the opposite, defining marriage as between one man and one woman. The House Judiciary Committee was scheduled to hear testimony Wednesday on several...
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Wednesday, May 07
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Source: Detroit Free Press , Associated Press via MLive.com Lansing, Mich. -- Michigan top court ruled Wednesday that a 2004 ban against gay marriage also blocks governments and state universities from offering health insurance to the partners of gay workers. The 5-2 decision from the Supreme Court affirms a state Court of Appeals ruling. The court majority found that language in the amendment prohibiting recognition of other unions "for any purpose" included the extension of benefits to gay and lesbian partners of public employees. Up to 20 public universities, community colleges, school...
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Wednesday, May 07
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Source: Poughkeepsie Journal, Empire State News , News8 ALBANY -- New York's highest court Tuesday sent back to a lower court a case involving whether Monroe County has to recognize a marriage between two women. The Court of Appeals refused to hear the case involving Patricia Martinez, an employee of Monroe Community College. She sued the county after it refused to grant benefits to Martinez’s female partner, Lisa Ann Golden, whom she married in Canada in 2004. The court ruled Tuesday that an issue of damages has to be settled before it can hear the case. That issue is now before a trial court...
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Sunday, May 04
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Source: New York Daily News , (Newark) Star-Ledger On Tuesday, after three years of failed negotiations, insults, and nonstop bickering over everything from Barnes & Noble parking lots to pony rides, the McGreevey divorce finally goes to trial. Legal analysts expect New Jersey's former first couple will approach new lows, even for divorce court. "I'm not going to tell you this is going to be the worst case ever in the history of New Jersey divorces," said Charles Abut, a matrimonial lawyer who operates the New Jersey Family Law blog. "But I think if you asked longtime...
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Friday, May 02
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Source: Monsters & Critics , AFP Two men were jailed for five years each today after being found guilty of a £50,000 ($100,000 USD) blackmail plot against a member of the royal family. Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan demanded the money for a set of recordings featuring "scandalous" remarks by a royal employee and charges of gay sex. They were convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey following a three-week trial estimated to have cost more than one million pounds. Each salacious detail of the trial was splashed onto the covers of London tabloids last month. In early 2007, the pair made...
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Friday, May 02
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Source: Eyewitness News, Memphis Memphis City Schools is defending a high school principal who was charged by the ACLU with violating the rights of two gay students whose names were posted to a list of student couples. In a letter released yesterday, the school district says that the at Hollis F. Price Middle College principal, Daphne Beasley, acted properly in compiling the list and notifying parents. The letter says that Beasley's list of "children she knew to be involved romantically" was appropriate because "such behavior" is a violation of school conduct codes. In a...
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Tuesday, April 29
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Source: WPTY TV , ACLU press release MEMPHIS, TN -- A Memphis high school principal who "outed" two gay high school students in September 2007 violated the students' constitutional right to freedom of association, the American Civil Liberties Union charged today. The ACLU said Daphne Beasley, the principal of Hollis F. Price Middle College High School, publicly told teachers and staff over the school's intercom system that she wanted the names of all student couples, "hetero and homo," because she wanted to monitor them personally to prevent students from engaging in...
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Tuesday, April 29
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Source: news.com.au Two residents of the Greek island of Lesbos have filed suit against a Greek LGBT activist group seeking to bar them from using the "L" part of the acronym -- Lesbian, news.com.au reports. The two Lesbos inhabitants filed the suit along with activist Dimitris Lambrou against Greek Gay and Lesbian Union (OLKE). It seeks to prohibit OLKE from using the word "lesbian" in its name. "This affair is totally ridiculous," OLKE spokeswoman Evangelia Vlami told AFP. "But if we are summoned by the courts, we will be heard." Lesbos residents now suffer...
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Tuesday, April 29
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Source: Montreal Gazette , Canadian Press MONTREAL -- A Montreal gay bar that caters to male clients has settled a discrimination complaint by a woman who was thrown out of the premises. Audrey Vachon, 21, filed a complaint to Quebec's human rights commission last May after she was asked to leave Bar Le Stud because she is a woman. She was sitting at the bar with her father, Gilles Vachon, Montreal Gazette reports. In a statement released today, the human rights commission announced the settlement, but refused to provide specific details. The bar and Vachon agreed to keep the terms of the settlement...
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Friday, April 25
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Source: Reuters , Associated Press , KFSN TV , Fresno Bee FRESNO, California -- The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin is suing a deposed bishop who led a secession last year prompted by the church's ordination of women and gays. The diocese said in its lawsuit, filed Thursday in Fresno County Superior Court, that John-David Schofield breached his duties to the church and demanded he vacate his offices and turn over diocesan property and financial accounts. National church leaders removed Schofield as the head of the Fresno-based diocese after he led parishioners to align themselves with the...
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Thursday, April 24
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Source: News.com.au , SameSame Sydney -- A GAY couple have won a landmark discrimination case after they were banned from becoming foster parents because they are homosexual. The couple, whose identities have been suppressed, took legal action when their application to become foster carers was refused by a welfare agency linked to the Uniting Church. After a hearing the New South Wales (NSW) Administrative Decisions Tribunal has ruled that they were "unlawfully discriminated against on the ground of homosexuality". In its judgment the tribunal said: "The evidence makes it clear that...
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Thursday, April 24
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Source: Naperville Sun The third time was the charm for a Neuqua Valley High School student who wants to express his sentiments on homosexuality by wearing a “Be Happy, Not Gay” T-shirt to class. Neuqua sophomore Alex Nuxoll had twice filed for an injunction that would suspend what his anti-gay activist lawyers claimed is “the school’s policy that allows speech in favor of homosexual conduct, but bans speech critical of homosexual conduct.” And twice courts had denied that request. But on Wednesday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit reversed the lower courts’ rulings against Nuxoll,...
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Friday, April 18
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Source: Daily Mail London -- A gay airport security guard is in line for a £30,000 payout after a female colleague thrust her breasts against him and pestered him for sex. Allwyn Rondeau, 46, made it clear to Lucy Chilton that he was homosexual and not interested in her after she told other staff she "wanted to shag him". Qnews background: Testimony: Female colleague mocked and 'pestered' gay security guard But Miss Chilton, 42, persisted in her advances and "wobbled her breasts" all over his chest as the pair worked at Heathrow. She also bent over a plane seat, shook...
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Friday, April 18
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Source: Des Moines Register , Quad City Times Court documents filed by special interest groups designed to influence a state Supreme Court decision on Iowa's same-sex marriage ban are "a postscript of inadmissible hearsay remarks," and not formal legal arguments, according to the Polk County attorney's office. A recent "friend of the court" brief filed by gay and lesbian groups and Massachusetts state lawmakers was based on unfounded opinions and news accounts, Polk officials said in their own document filed Thursday. Lambda Legal, a New York gay rights organization...
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Thursday, April 17
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Source: Irish Times , Irish Independent , Press Association , RTE News Dublin -- The Dublin High Court has ruled that a lesbian couple living together in a long-term committed relationship with a child can be regarded as a de facto family enjoying rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. In a judgment that will have an impact on the debate about legislating for same-sex couples, Mr Justice John Hedigan has said that the best interests of a child lay in remaining with his mother and her female partner. A gay friend of a lesbian couple who donated his sperm to one of them, resulting...
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Wednesday, April 16
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Source: Associated Press via Detroit Free Press "Breaking up is hard to do," Neil Sadaka tells us in his popular 60s song [ YouTube video ] , even though divorce rates among heterosexual couples seem to offer a contrary lesson. But an Associated Press report indicates that the song is all-too true for some for gay and lesbian couples who have taken advantage of hard-fought political victories and have gotten hitched in one of the handful of states that grant marriage-like unions for same-sex couples. Related in Qnews : Lack of federal and out-of-state recognition makes divorce a disaster...
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Monday, April 14
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Source: Daily Breeze The LAPD's first openly gay police officer will get a new trial on his claims that he was the victim of retaliation and sexual orientation discrimination during his second tour of duty with the department, one of his lawyers said today. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James R. Dunn ruled that Mitchell Grobeson should have a new trial on grounds of misconduct by a juror who admitted pre-judging the case and eventually voted in favor of the city, attorney Theresa Traber said. "We're very happy because we feel vindicated," Traber said. "We felt the verdict...
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Friday, April 11
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Source: Palm Beach Post , TCPalm FL anti-gay schools Okeechobee, Fla. -- A see-saw legal battle over a gay-straight club Okeechobee High School took another bounce Wednesday when a federal judge tossed out the lawsuit filed by a then-student at who said she was wrongfully denied the right to start a Gay-Straight Alliance on campus. The former student, Yasmin Gonzalez, has graduated, so she's no longer affected by the school's decision to ban the club, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore said in a ruling Wednesday. Gonzalez's attorneys with the ACLU tried to maintain her stake in the...
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Friday, April 11
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Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer , Associated Press via Fox19 The Episcopal Diocese of Ohio is suing to regain control of several churches that broke away in protest over the election of a gay bishop and other doctrinal issues that have divided the denomination. Dissatisfied members of the five parishes named in the suit can leave the diocese, but they cannot hold on to the land buildings, the church said in the lawsuit filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. The diocese wants the court to rule that the church holds the rights to the property. The parishes associated themselves an anti-gay cleric...
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Wednesday, April 09
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Source: Associated Press ASHLAND, Ky. -- A federal appeals court yesterday tossed out one of several lawsuits challenging school policies related to gay-straight clubs or to the annual day of silence. One judge called the suit trivial. Timothy Morrison, a senior at Boyd County High School, sued the the school district over a policy that required students to undergo anti-harassment training. He claimed the policy threatened him with punishment for expressing religious beliefs in opposition to homosexuality. Morrison is a professed Christian who believes his religion requires him to speak out against...
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Monday, April 07
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Source: Associated Press via Kansas City Star , KTKA TV BALTIMORE -- A federal judge has issued liens against a fundamentalist Kansas church and ordered two of its members to post cash bonds while they appeal a $5 million judgment resulting from the church’s protest at a military funeral. The judge wants the church to pay up after protesting at Maryland soldier Matthew Snyder's funeral. Snyder's father sued Westboro and won $5 million. Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, 20, was killed in Iraq in March 2006. The church was ordered to post bond of more than $500,000 in property. "I...
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Monday, April 07
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Source: Edmonton Journal A decade after Edmonton's Delwin Vriend scored a landmark victory for gay rights in Canada, civil liberties advocates gathered downtown Sunday to celebrate both the triumph and the societal changes that followed from it. Human rights experts across the country unanimously rate the Vriend victory as one of the top 10 civil liberties decisions in Canadian history, said Lyle Kanee, a lawyer with the Canadian Jewish Congress. "Look where we're at boys and girls -- we're in City Hall," activist Murray Billett told a standing-room-only crowd assembled for...
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