7/9/2009

"Five years after it became the first state to marry same-sex couples, Massachusetts is taking on the federal government's definition of marriage.

"While other lawsuits have challenged the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which was passed in 1996 and defined marriage as between a man and woman, Massachusetts is the first to argue that Congress overstepped its bounds and violated a state's right to determine what constitutes marriage.

7/9/2009

"Three gay-friendly legal groups have asked to be part of a federal lawsuit challenging California's same-sex marriage ban...

"Jennifer Pizer, Lambda Legal's national marriage director, said their full participation is vital now that U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker has put the Proposition 8 challenge on a fast-track to trial.

6/29/2009

"After all the outrage, protests and promises to put same sex marriage back on the ballot in 2010 following the California Supreme Court's May 26 ruling upholding Prop 8, the struggle over marriage equality is now back in the courts – and this time the stakes are even higher.

"According to Lambda Legal Marriage Project Director Jenny Pizer – who is one of the LGBT attorneys on the LGBT legal amicus brief - the legal groups strongly agree that Prop 8 is unconstitutional under the federal Equal Protection and Due Process doctrine.

6/30/2009

"Three months have passed since the Iowa Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, and gay couples are finding out that being married doesn't necessarily translate into spousal health benefits.

"Of 27 major Iowa and Nebraska employers contacted by The World-Herald, four provide health insurance benefits to gay married couples. Most employers have not changed their health insurance benefits to include gay spouses and, according to federal law, they don't have to.

6/28/2009

"The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, were the seminal moment in an ongoing social revolution that has shattered social taboos, changed laws and stretched the definition of family.

"For some people, the gay rights movement isn't advancing fast enough... For others, it has already gone too far.

"'There have been women ? brilliant, brave and creative ? doing stuff before Stonewall and after Stonewall,' said Leslie Gabel-Brett, director of Education and Public Affairs for Lambda Legal, a national organization."

6/18/2009

"President Obama moved yesterday to reset his relations with a gay and lesbian constituency that supported him by wide margins in the last election and whose leaders have been disappointed ever since.

"The gay political agenda has proved to be a challenge for Obama, who since taking office has tried to drain the ideological fervor from the most divisive foreign and domestic policy debates.

"'We are working on a large amount of things,' White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters yesterday.

6/6/2009

"When C.C. married C.M. in Massachusetts in 2005, they expected the marriage to be forever. The lesbian couple, who lived together on the Upper East Side, had been in a relationship for five years... But tensions set in, straining the marriage. There were health and financial issues, and the 'stress of a same-sex marriage.'

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.