The state of Arizona has no valid reason for placing its lesbian and gay employees on a lower pay scale than heterosexuals, Lambda Legal today told a three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The oral arguments were part of a case to block a law stripping domestic partner benefits from gay and lesbian state employees.

Today, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Lambda Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), and the Detroit-based organizations Affirmations and Ruth Ellis Center in a case involving a counseling student dismissed from Eastern Michigan University (EMU) for violating ethics related to treatment of LGBT patients.

"Carrie Sperling and Sue Shapcott moved here from Texas in 2007 knowing that Arizona wouldn't recognize their same-sex marriage, but at least they would qualify for domestic partner benefits available to state employees because of Sperling's job with Arizona State University.

"Then, in 2009, a budget-cutting measure signed by Gov. Jan Brewer narrowed coverage to employees' spouses and dependent children, effectively barring same-sex couples.

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued a letter to state birth registrars announcing a procedure change allowing a woman to be named as a parent on the Maryland birth certificate of the child born to her same-sex married spouse, without the necessity of a court order. Lambda Legal applauds this advance for Maryland children.

"The Nebraska Constitution prevents gay couples who've married in other states from getting divorces in Nebraska, a state judge told a lesbian couple seeking an end to their 2003 marriage.

"...Ken Upton Jr., an attorney for advocacy group Lambda Legal, said state laws and constitutional amendments in opposition to gay marriage are a departure from the legal reciprocity states have historically paid to each other and 'are just beginning to create untold problems we have not been forced to face before.'

Today the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in a case defending the right of transgender people to receive medical care while they are incarcerated. Under Wisconsin law, prison doctors are prohibited from prescribing hormone treatment to transgender inmates. The law is being challenged by Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU of Wisconsin.

2/4/2011

"Two gay rights organizations have launched a way to track the couples who take advantage of Illinois' newly signed civil unions law.

"Lambda Legal and Equality Illinois say their civil union tracker aims to make sure same-sex and different-sex couples are treated fairly under the law.

"Gov. Pat Quinn signed the civil unions law Monday during a Chicago ceremony attended by about 1,000 people. The law takes effect June 1."

2/2/2011

"Vandy Beth Glenn still has the box she packed more than three years ago after being told to empty out her office.

"Though the legislative editor -- hired as a man in 2005 and fired roughly two years later after informing a supervisor she was undergoing gender transition -- was reinstated last August, the box remains untouched.

February 2011

Francisco Dueñas, Coordinator of Lambda Legal's Proyecto Igualdad, was profiled in a cover story about Latino LGBT community leaders.

In Illinois, Gov. Pat Quinn signed the civil union law Monday, a huge step forward on the road to full equality. And the very next day, across the state line, the Iowa House voted 62 to 37 in favor of a constitutional amendment barring all legal recognition of same-sex couples.