Same-sex relationships

After marrying her longtime partner in New York state, Regina Hawkins-Balducci tried to add her wife’s name to the lease on her rent-stabilized apartment in Harlem. Her landlord refused, even though Hawkins-Balducci presented him with the couple’s marriage certificate.

The Justice Department filed a request today that the U.S. Supreme Court hear Lambda Legal’s challenge to the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in the Golinski v. OPM case.

Lambda Legal sent letters today to the leaders of 20 Maryland counties asking for confirmation that it is county policy to recognize out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples, including for purposes of county employee spousal benefits.

Lambda Legal Marriage Project Director Camilla Taylor tells the AP that she never has had a case in which the defendants agreed with her.