9/23/2009

"The House Education and Labor Committee held its first full committee hearing on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act today. Here is testimony from eight witnesses."

Watch the testimony from Lambda Legal plaintiff Vandy Beth Glen on towleroad.com

9/22/2009

"A group of Wisconsin same-sex couples and a national gay-rights legal group is asking to be allowed to be part of a challenge to the creation of Wisconsin’s state’s new domestic partnership program.

"Lambda Legal, which advocates for civil rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people, is asking the state Supreme Court to allow it to intervene on behalf of Fair Wisconsin, which is defending the domestic partnerships established in the budget Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle signed in July.

9/22/2009

"Fair Wisconsin said it will seek to intervene in a lawsuit that asks the court to strike down the law giving same-sex couples some spousal benefits. The move is the latest development in a case that has already faced one unexpected delay since its filing July 23.

"...It will be represented in the case by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a New York-based gay rights group.

9/15/2009

"'Everyone is lost in the 2010 versus 2012 discussion,' says Chad Griffin, board president of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the group behind a federal lawsuit filed by prominent attorneys Theodore B. Olson and David Boies on behalf of two same-sex couples who were denied marriage licenses in California.

7/2009

"All Rev. Robert Franke wanted to do was live in an assisted living facility (ALF) close to his daughter, Sara Franke Bowling, and his grandchildren in Little Rock, Ark. Franke is a 75-year-old retired biology and religion professor, university dean, and Unitarian-Universalist minister who happens to be gay. Happily, he found an ALF not too far away, in North Little Rock. He applied for admission and supplied the ALF with all the necessary paperwork, including medical forms filled out by a local physician, and moved in. The next day, he was evicted.

Summer has ended, and students all over the country have returned to school — time to learn new lessons and do homework. Lambda Legal does its homework, too, because making the case for equality requires preparation. And because positive change doesn’t happen overnight, sometimes we need to double our diligence in order to excel.

"Two women are claiming to be victims of discrimination because they were refused the couples discount when entering a catfish derby.

"According to an article in the Baker City Herald, Angela and Tina Corriere-Gooch said that when registering for the annual Huntington (Oregon) Lions Club Catfish Derby, they were denied the $1 entry fee discount given other couples, including to their nieces who entered the contest with their boyfriends.

"Robert Franke is a retired university provost, a distinguished biologist who once served as a dean of a college of arts and sciences. He is a master gardener, a voracious reader, a pianist and a retired Unitarian-Universalist minister with a Master of Divinity degree.

"He also was recently evicted from the Fox Ridge assisted living center in North Little Rock, Ark., and he is suing because he claims he was tossed out due to his HIV.

8/31/2009

"One of the constituencies in which Mr. Obama needs firm support is the gay community. The president was elected with enormous financial and organizational support from gay voters, in part because of a campaign platform that included promises to push through legislation broadening the definition of those covered by hate crimes laws, outlawing workplace discrimination based on an employee's sexual orientation, and repealing the 16-year-old Pentagon policy known as 'don't ask don't tell.'

8/26/2009

"A group that helped to outlaw gay marriage in California is turning its focus to Iowa, hoping to begin the long process of overturning a state Supreme Court decision earlier this year that legalized same-sex marriage.

"...Camilla Taylor, an attorney for Lambda Legal, the national group that represented several same-sex couples in a lawsuit that led to April's Iowa Supreme Court decision, said the latest campaign doesn't come [as] a surprise.