In the News

4/16/2010

"...The Obama memo is inspired in part by the case of Janice Langbehn, who was kept from seeing her partner, Lisa Pond, as she slipped into a coma. Last September a federal judge rejected Langbehn's lawsuit against Florida's Jackson Memorial Hospital, saying there was no law requiring the staff to grant Langbehn access to Pond's bedside.

"After signing the memo, Obama called Langbehn from Air Force One, according to a statement issued by Lambda Legal, which represented Langbehn in court.

4/15/2010

"President Obama on Thursday ordered his health secretary to issue new rules aimed at granting hospital visiting rights to same-sex partners.

"...Gay rights advocates said the rules change was inspired by one of those cases involving a same-sex couple, Janice Langbehn and Lisa Pond, who were profiled in The New York Times last year. After Ms. Pond was stricken with a fatal brain aneurysm, Ms. Langbehn was denied visiting rights in 2007 by a Florida hospital.

4/12/2009

"Some court observers credit U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens with having forged a majority of the court to overturn laws banning private sexual relations between persons of the same sex -- the most beneficial gay-related decision ever rendered by the Supreme Court.

"...The Human Rights Campaign called Stevens 'fair-minded' and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund hailed him as a 'true visionary' to whom the LGBT community 'owes much.'

4/6/2010

"A floppy mop of blond hair flew behind Jamison Olson as he popped out the bottom of a tunnel slide. He cast a few backward glances at his mother Ingrid Evans Olson, who followed close behind, before letting loose with laughter and jumping into the waiting arms of Reva Evans Olson, his other mother.

3/31/2010

"Gay marriage advocates have reached their goal, but one year after an Iowa Supreme Court decision legalized gay marriage in Iowa, they must continue to tell their stories.

"...Lambda Legal, a New York-based gay rights organization, filed the Varnum v. Brien lawsuit on behalf of six same-sex couples, including the BarbouRoskes, in 2005 after Polk County Recorder Timothy Brien denied them marriage licenses. A district court found denying marriage licenses unconstitutional, but it was immediately appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court.

3/24/2010

"In the wake of the pointed refusal by New Jersey's legislature to take action, Lambda Legal has returned to the New Jersey Supreme Court to win the freedom to marry. Lambda's attorneys filed a motion directly with the high court, asking it to bring New Jersey across the finish line to the equality that the constitution commands. The suit asks the Court to cure unconstitutional discrimination against lesbian and gay couples by finally ending their exclusion from marriage.

3/19/2010

"Gay couples who unsuccessfully sued New Jersey four years ago for the right to marry returned to court Thursday, claiming the state has not fulfilled a court order to treat them the same as married heterosexual couples.

"In a motion filed in the New Jersey Supreme Court, the couples argue that even though New Jersey offers civil unions to gay couples as the state's response to the 2006 order, the government, hospitals, schools, employers and other institutions do not always recognize their full rights.

3/18/2010

"Lambda Legal announces the details of legal action seeking marriage equality for same-sex couples in New Jersey. Calling the state's civil unions law a failed experiment, six same-sex couples yesterday asked the state Supreme Court to grant them the right to marry.

"'What we have lived for the last three years is that civil unions are not equal to marriage,' Cindy Meneghin of Butler said in an interview before Lambda Legal announced it is reviving its case before the Supreme Court."

3/19/2010

"Advocates for gay and lesbian couples are headed back to New Jersey's Supreme Court to resume their attempt to legalize same-sex marriage. Lambda Legal, a gay-rights legal group, filed a motion with the court yesterday seeking a ruling that would let same-sex couples wed.

"The filing argues that the state has failed to comply with a 2006 ruling that said committed gay and lesbian couples should be provided the same rights as heterosexual husbands and wives.

3/19/2010

"A Butler couple is among 13 plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Thursday seeking to legalize gay marriage in New Jersey.

"Cindy Meneghin and Maureen Kilian of Butler, who marked their 35th anniversary together last August, also were plaintiffs in the 2002 Lewis v. Harris lawsuit that led to the civil union law in 2006.

"'Marriage has a meaning that civil unions can never have,' said Meneghin, 52, director of Internet services at Montclair State University.