In the News

06/16/2009

"Eric and Sandy Kay Mongerson had four children during their 21-year marriage. But when the couple divorced in 2007, Fayette Superior Court Judge Christopher Edwards issued a blanket ban against the children having any contact with the father's gay partner or friends.

"In a unanimous decision, The Supreme Court of Georgia threw out Judge Edwards' decision, saying he wrongfully assumed the children would suffer harm.

6/8/2009

"Proponents of same-sex marriage hope to build on recent successes in Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire and rally support for legislation elsewhere.

"Jennifer Pizer is the National Marriage Project Director at Lambda Legal... [She] spoke with VPR's Jane Lindholm about strategies they'll pursue in states where same-sex marriage is being debated."

Listen to the broadcast on vpr.net

5/28/2009

"Gay rights advocates Wednesday blasted two veteran attorneys for filing a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn Proposition 8, California's voter-approved same-sex marriage ban, saying the move is premature and could be disastrous for the marriage movement.

"The advocates say it took 17 years to undo a 1986 Supreme Court decision that upheld Georgia's sodomy law. An Arkansas court used that law as justification to deny a lesbian mother custody of her children, said Jon Davidson, legal director at Lambda Legal, a national gay rights group.

5/27/2009

"...David Boies and Theodore B. Olson appeared on the same team on Wednesday as co-counsel in a federal lawsuit.

"...Their mutual goal: overturning Proposition 8, California's freshly affirmed ban on same-sex marriage. It is a fight that jolted many gay rights advocates.

"...[V]eterans of the legal battles over same-sex marriage questioned the suit's timing, particularly when a conservative majority holds sway in the Supreme Court.

5/18/2009

"When a loved one is in the hospital, you naturally want to be at the bedside. But what if the staff won't allow it?

"'I have this deep sense of failure for not being at Lisa's bedside when she died,' Ms. Langbehn said. 'How I get over that I don't know, or if I ever do.'

"The [Langbehn] case, now a subject of a federal lawsuit in Florida, is being watched by gay rights groups, which say same-sex partners often report being excluded from a patient's room because they aren't 'real' family members.

5/28/2009

"Gay-rights lawyers on Wednesday welcomed longtime conservative lawyer Theodore Olson into the fight for same-sex marriage, but warned him and liberal colleague David Boies that they could hurt the cause more than help it by launching an attack on California's Proposition 8 in the federal courts.

6/16/2009

"Don Atkins shared his life with Ted Horzella for 37 years...But when Horzella died in 2005 at the age of 76, Atkins was shocked to learn his annual property tax bill would rise from $1,400 to $10,400.

6/12/2009

"Gay rights groups expressed dismay with the Obama administration Friday over its championing of the Defense of Marriage Act, a law the president pledged to try to repeal while on the campaign trail.

"'The president made very explicit and emphatic campaign promises that he opposes DOMA and would provide leadership calling on Congress to repeal it,' said Jennifer Pizer, marriage project director for Lambda Legal. 'This brief is not consistent with that promise.'"

6/15/2009

"The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday threw out a judge's order that prohibited children in a divorce case from having any contact with their father's gay and lesbian friends.

"Beth Littrell, staff attorney for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in Atlanta, said the visitation order was the most sweeping of its kind she had seen in Georgia.

"'Placing a blanket ban on children's association with gay people not only hurts this father's relationship with his children, it is blatant discrimination,' Littrell said."

5/8/2009

"...Rumors surfaced this week that two highly qualified lesbians had made President Barack Obama's initial list to replace Justice David Souter.

"...Jon Davidson, legal director for the LGBT advocacy group Lambda Legal, is hopeful that Obama's views on gay marriage will eventually 'evolve' and that he will embrace the gay movement as a civil rights issue.