A New York family court issued a decision last week affirming that married lesbian couples continue to be entitled to second parent adoptions to give added security to their children, who already are entitled to have both spouses recognized as their parents.
Today the New York State Court of Appeals ruled that non-biological, non-married, non-adoptive parents can seek custody and visitation of children who were born into their relationships with the consent of the child’s biological parent.
The following blog post is an excerpt from Losing Forward: The Marriage Case in New York by Jeffrey Trachtman, a partner in the New York law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP.
Just hours after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed for the second time that Puerto Rico’s ban on marriage for LGBT people is unconstitutional and ordered the case be reassigned to a new judge, District Court Judge Gustavo A. Gelpí issued a judgment striking down that ban.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit today once again affirmed that Puerto Rico’s marriage ban is unconstitutional and ordered the District Court of Puerto Rico to enter judgment in favor of Lambda Legal’s plaintiffs and, in light of the egregious disregard of its prior order, ordered that the case be reassigned to a different district court judge.
Lambda Legal filed a petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit asking the court to make clear that last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which granted same-sex couples the right to marry, applies to Puerto Rico and to order the district court to enter judgment in favor of the plaintiffs.
Today, Governor Alejandro García Padilla announced that the decision issued yesterday by the District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, holding that the historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges striking down discriminatory marriage bans nationwide did not apply to Puerto Rico because it is not a state, would not affect the ability of LGBT people in Puerto Rico to marry. Lambda Legal applauds the Governor’s announcement.
Today, the U.S. District Court of the District of Puerto Rico ruled that the historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges striking down discriminatory marriage bans nationwide did not apply to Puerto Rico because it is not a state, and denied a joint motion brought by Lambda Legal and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to declare Puerto Rico’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples unconstitutional. Lambda Legal will appeal the ruling.
After the Georgia Senate passed the so-called "First Amendment Defense Act of Georgia (FADA)", Lambda Legal urged the House to reject HB 757. The anti-LGBT bill encourages private businesses, individuals and medical and social services agencies to discriminate against anyone in Georgia on religious grounds.