In the News

"A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Arizona must continue for now to provide health care benefits to same-sex partners of state government workers.

"The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a temporary block on a controversial 2009 state law that sought to strip health coverage for gay and lesbian domestic partners of Arizona employees.

"State Rep. Deborah Mell (D-Chicago) quietly made Illinois history last week. She got married. To a woman.

"But she had to go to Iowa to do it.

"...'Their Iowa marriage is deemed to be a civil union under Illinois law,' said Christopher Clark, senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal, a national civil rights organization."

Read more on suntimes.com

"About a hundred people gathered on 110th Street, "Tito Puente Way," in East Harlem last night to remember the life of Camila Guzman. The vigil, sponsored by the Anti-Violence Project, took place outside of Camila's apartment, where she was found murdered last week...

"The vigil featured speakers who not only tackled what the death of Camila, a transgender immigrant from Chile, meant for the LGBT community and trans women of color in general, but what it meant to them personally.

"Flor Bermudez, a staff attorney for Lamba Legal, shared her thoughts about her friend:"

"Wisconsin's attempt to ban hormone therapy for transgender prison inmates is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

"The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Chief U.S. District Judge Charles N. Clevert Jr.'s decision last year striking down the state's 2005 Sex Change Prevention Act after a nonjury trial.

"Lambda Legal charges in the suit that the frightening encounter ensued after the manager accused Liza Friedlander of not paying for the buffet during brunch with friends at the Forest Hills Sizzler last September.

"The suit, filed in Queens Supreme Court, says the manager shoved Friedlander in the chest and kicked her in the legs while calling her a "f...... dyke" and other epithets.

"...The suit is believed to be the first test of an anti-bias law passed last year that allows victims of anti-gay violence to sue their attackers in civil court."

"President Obama says the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, and he wants Congress to repeal it. But until a court strikes the law down, he says, he will continue to enforce it, denying federal benefits to same-sex couples.

"That enforcement policy, however, is undergoing changes.

"'We are seeing a not wholly consistent approach,' said Jon Davidson, legal director of the gay rights group Lambda Legal, which represents Golinski in federal court. 'The actions taken by the administration are evolving, just like the president's position on marriage equality.'"

"The remarkable thing about what happened on the Senate floor Monday night was that it was utterly unremarkable.

"The matter under consideration – the nomination of the first openly gay man to serve on the federal bench – would at one time have been a flashpoint in the culture wars. But Paul Oetken was confirmed without a word of objection on the Senate floor and with hardly a mention in the commentariat.

"A series of major constitutional disputes over the rights of gays and lesbians are developing in federal courts, and now the first of that new wave of cases has reached the Supreme Court: a significant test case on whether the Constitution protects same-sex couples’ rights as parents. The case, Adar v. Smith, State Registrar (docket 11-46), was filed at the Court Monday by lawyers for a California couple seeking to be listed as parents on a birth certificate for a five-year-old Louisiana boy they have adopted.

"A gay rights organization is seeking Supreme Court review of the case of a gay couple who wanted both their names to appear on the birth certificate of the Louisiana child they adopted in New York.

"Lambda Legal said Monday it filed for court review in the case of adoptive parents Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith, who now reside in the Orlando, Fla., area, sued to get both their names on the certificate."

Read more on wsj.com

Now that same-sex marriage has been legalized in New York, at least a few large companies are requiring their employees to tie the knot if they want their partners to qualify for health insurance.