"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.

My partner and I have been together two years and are talking about making a formal commitment to each other. We are domestic partners since I enrolled my partner in my health plan at work. But we haven't done all the legal paperwork our friends did, as it sounded complicated. Hearing about the civil union law in Illinois and the vote to repeal marriage in Iowa, we're even more confused about what we should do. It feels like these options keep changing and we don't know the differences among them.

Today the Ohio Supreme Court heard arguments in Lambda Legal's case defending Michele Hobbs, a lesbian mother who was denied access to her child when she and her former partner, the biological mother, ended their relationship.

After the Iowa House of Representatives voted 62-37 in favor of a bill banning marriage and any other form of relationship recognition for same-sex couples, Lambda Legal issued the following statement from Senior Staff Attorney Camilla Taylor

2/1/2011

"Iowans' deep and divided emotions over marriage rights spilled out onto the House floor Monday night, the eve of a House vote on a resolution to begin the process to amend the state's constitution to ban same-sex marriage."

Watch Lambda Legal plaintiffs Jen and Dawn BarbouRoske speak in the video below: