Jan 02, 2009   | COMMENTS     

Election Day results that included Barack Obama’s victory and the passage of Proposition 8 in California topped gay news in 2008. Here’s a look back at the rest of the year’s top stories.

Connecticut court grants gay couples right to wed

While same-sex couples in California briefly won the right to marry last year, the Golden State was not the only place where gays gained that right.

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in October that same-sex couples had the right to marry and that a civil unions law enacted by the state three years ago failed to provide gay people with the “status and significance” of marriage.

In a 4-3 decision, the court concluded that, “the segregation of heterosexual and homosexual couples into separate institutions constitutes a cognizable harm.”

Justices ruled that sexual orientation “constitutes a quasi-suspect classification,” opening the way for the court to declare the state’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional and for gays to begin marrying there Nov. 12.

Meanwhile, in New York, same-sex couples gained marriage recognition in May when Gov. David Paterson (D) ordered state agencies to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions.

Gay couples remained unable to marry in New York, but after Democrats took control of the state Senate on Election Day, advocates hoped the state would legalize same-sex marriage in the next legislative session.

Ballot defeats sting gays in Florida, Arizona, Arkansas

Proposition 8 wasn’t the only defeat gays suffered on Election Day. Ballot initiatives banning same-sex marriage passed in Arizona and Florida, and voters in Arkansas approved a measure that precludes same-sex couples from adopting children.

In 2006, Arizona was the first state to reject a ban on same-sex marriage. That proposal was written so broadly that it could have affected certain benefits for unmarried straight couples. Last year’s rematch, Proposition 102, was strictly a vote on gay marriage, and passed with 56 percent of the vote.

In Florida, Amendment 2 won the 60 percent it needed to pass, making the state among the 30 that
now have laws defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Meanwhile, in Arkansas, 57 percent of voters made it illegal for unmarried people who are living together to adopt or provide foster care to children.

Mississippi’s law prohibits gay couples from adopting, and Utah has a law similar to the one in Arkansas. Florida is the only state with an outright ban on single gay people adopting, though Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman ruled Florida’s ban on gay parents is illegal on Nov. 25.

Lederman’s ruling allows Martin Gill and his partner to adopt two brothers, ages 4 and 8, for whom they have cared since 2004.

Presidential candidates talk to gay media outlets

Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama, Bill Richardson and Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential nominee John McCain talked to several gay media outlets during the 2008 campaign.

Richardson spoke to the Blade. Clinton spoke to the Blade and to gay publications in Dallas, Ohio and Philadelphia. Obama answered questions from the Blade and the Advocate.

The Democratic candidates pledged their support for overturning “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” passing the gay-inclusive hate crimes bill and extending federal benefits to same-sex couples.

Obama garnered some criticism from gay newspapers when he declined to grant an interview to the Philadelphia Gay News even as Clinton accepted. He responded by first talking to the Advocate and then answering questions from the Blade.

Republican nominee John McCain, meanwhile, answered questions exclusively for the Blade about his gay role models, his desire for a national AIDS strategy and his thoughts on the Defense of Marriage Act. It marked the first time a Republican presidential nominee agreed to an interview with the gay press.

“The significance of this interview by our Republican nominee for president can’t be overstated,” said Scott Tucker of Log Cabin Republicans. “We now, for the first time, have the two major nominees for president, Republican and Democrat, asking for gay and lesbian votes.”

Gays, lesbians named to Obama’s transition team

President-elect Barack Obama named seven openly gay people to his transition team two weeks after he won the White House.

The transition, a team of more than 300 people, reviews federal departments and agencies. Three of the gay appointees — businessman Fred P. Hochberg, former San Francisco Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg, and labor attorney Elaine Kaplan — served in the Clinton administration.

Hochberg was President Clinton’s deputy and later acting administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Achtenberg worked in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Kaplan served in the Clinton administration as head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. Kaplan ...