The California Supreme Court's historic decision last week legalizing same-sex marriage in the state greatly strengthened the principle that state constitutions open the way for marriage rights for gays, attorneys said.

In a 4-3 ruling written by Chief Justice Ronald George, who was appointed in 1991 by Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, the court overturned two state laws banning same-sex marriage, one of which had been approved by voters in a 2000 ballot initiative.

“In light of the fundamental nature of the substantive rights embodied in the right to marry — and their central importance to an individual's opportunity to live a happy, meaningful and satisfying life ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2008/5-23/news/legal/12618.cfm Fri, 23 May 2008 05:00:00 EST Legal briefs

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Friday, February 15, 2008

Judge: McGreevey boyfriend must turn over bank records

pan class="textdarkGray">ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) — A judge has ordered the boyfriend of former Gov. Jim McGreevey to turn over records from three joint bank accounts the gay couple shares as part of the ongoing divorce proceedings between McGreevey and his estranged wife. However, Australian-born investment manager Mark O'Donnell won't be forced to reveal his salary, stock portfolio or any financial dealings with New Jersey politicians, Union County Superior Court Judge Karen Cassidy ruled this week. Cassidy said O'Donnell's other finances are not relevant to McGreevey's divorce case.

Dina ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2008/2-15/news/legal/12038.cfm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 05:00:00 EST Legal briefs

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Friday, November 16, 2007

Fla. jury finds Rep. Bob Allen guilty in bathroom sex case

pan class="textdark">VIERA, Fla. (AP) — Republicans pressured a Florida House representative to resign after his conviction for trying to pay for gay sex with an undercover police officer. A three-man, three-woman jury deliberated nearly three-and-a-half hours Nov. 9 before finding state Rep. Bob Allen (R-Merritt Island) guilty of soliciting prostitution, a misdemeanor. Allen was accused of peering over a stall at a young, black undercover police officer, then agreeing to pay $20 to perform oral sex on him. Florida law provides automatic expulsion for legislators convicted of felonies, but ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/11-16/news/legal/11595.cfm Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal briefs

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Friday, November 09, 2007

'God hates fags' church loses $11 million lawsuit

pan class="textdark">OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The fiery message of Westboro Baptist Church has led its followers into a fight for what they say are their First Amendment rights. Despite what many would consider a setback, members of the Topeka, Kan.,-based church could not be happier. “Our message has exploded all over the world,” a delighted Shirley Phelps-Roper said last week. Phelps-Roper's comments came a day after the fundamentalist church was ordered in Maryland to pay nearly $11 million to a grieving father whose son's military funeral was the target of the congregation's frequent pick ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/11-9/news/legal/11538.cfm Fri, 9 Nov 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal briefs

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Friday, October 26, 2007

Mother of S.C. gay man wants hate crime law after son's death

pan class="textdark">COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The mother of an openly gay man killed earlier this year outside a Greenville County bar said last week she's outraged because she has been told the teen accused of throwing the deadly punch won't face the stiffest charge possible. Sean Kennedy's mother said the chief investigator in her son's death told her a grand jury indicted Stephen Andrew Moller on involuntary manslaughter charges for the May 16 death of her 20-year-old son, who fell to the ground after being hit in the face in the parking lot of a bar. Police said he likely struck his hea ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/10-26/news/legal/11454.cfm Fri, 26 Oct 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal briefs

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Friday, October 19, 2007

Craig appeals ruling that said he can't withdraw guilty plea

pan class="textdark">MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Embattled Sen. Larry Craig, whose “wide stance” got him in trouble this summer, asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals Monday to overrule a county judge who refused to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea in connection with an arrest in an airport bathroom sex sting. Craig's appeal was filed at the court in St. Paul less than two weeks after Hennepin County Judge Charles Porter refused to overturn the guilty plea, saying it “was accurate, voluntary and intelligent, and ... supported by the evidence.” Craig, a Republican from I ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/10-19/news/legal/11414.cfm Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal briefs

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Friday, October 05, 2007

Gay cop sues city, NYPD, alleging they allowed harassment

pan class="textdark">NEW YORK (AP) — A gay police officer in New York City has filed a discrimination suit against the city and the New York Police Department, saying he was threatened with violence, called vulgar names and treated unfairly by supervisors because of his sexual orientation. The lawsuit was filed by Michael Harrington, 30, who claimed his superior officers failed to take proper action when he told them about the malicious and discriminatory mistreatment he suffered. “The hell he's gone through is heart wrenching,” said Harrington's lawyer, George Rosenbaum. Connie ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/10-5/news/legal/11348.cfm Fri, 5 Oct 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal briefs
Gay rights group may appeal N.J. boardwalk bias decision
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Friday, September 28, 2007

pan class="textdark">NEPTUNE, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey's leading gay rights group wants to appeal a decision by state environmental officials stripping a Methodist church group of a tax exemption for part of the Ocean Grove boardwalk. Garden State Equality says the decision by state Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson does not go far enough in penalizing the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association for refusing to let same-sex couples hold civil union ceremonies in a boardwalk pavilion where straight couples are allowed to wed. The ruling was more symbolic than substantive: the actual tax impact to the church group is likely to be about $175 per year, according to th ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/9-28/news/legal/11312.cfm Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal analysis
Experts call ruling 'troubling'
By JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, September 21, 2007

Some legal experts called “troubling” and “narrow” a ruling this week that affirmed Maryland's ban on same-sex marriage, while others praised it as the right decision.

Jana Singer, a University of Maryland law professor who filed papers supporting the 19 gay and lesbian plaintiffs who challenged the ban, said the decision represented “a step backward” for the court.

“It seems in many ways to have taken a step backward in its interpretation of the Maryland Declaration of Rights,” she said, “and the protections it had affirmed for individuals under the Maryland Constitution.”

Singer said the decision has &ld ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/9-21/news/legal/11260.cfm Fri, 21 Sep 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal briefs
San Diego Council declines to join pro-gay marriage brief
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Friday, September 14, 2007

pan class="textdark">SAN DIEGO — San Diego City Council declined last week to sign onto an amicus brief with other cities asking the California Supreme Court to overturn a prohibition on same-sex marriages, according to a report by signonsandiego.com, an online news agency (for more about the California gay marriage issue, see story on Page 1). The brief was endorsed by several California cities including Los Angeles, San Jose, Long Beach and Oakland. San Diego Council member Toni Atkins introduced a motion to join the request but it failed, the online report said. One council member who voted against the measure cited a lack of public notice as her reason for voting against ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/9-14/news/legal/11230.cfm Fri, 14 Sep 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal briefs
Florida state rep. to face trial in gay prostitution charges
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Friday, August 31, 2007

pan class="textdark">TITUSVILLE, Fla. — Florida State Rep. Bob Allen, charged with a misdemeanor count of solicitation of prostitution last month, will face trial on the charge it was determined during a hearing Monday. Testimony Allen gave Florida police saying he was frightened of the officer who arrested him, will not be used in the case, it was determined this week. A trial date of Sept. 19 was set. Allen appeared at the hearing with his wife. Allen said in the statement that he “certainly wasn't there to have sex with anybody and certainly wasn't there to exchange money for it … This was a pretty stocky black guy, and there was nothing but other black guys a ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/8-31/news/legal/11166.cfm Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal Briefs
Ga. lesbian mother reunited with child she hopes to adopt
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Friday, May 25, 2007

ATLANTA — A Georgia woman spent last weekend with the 7-year-old girl she has been trying to adopt for almost a year, following a months-long legal dispute that saw a state judge there remove the child from the woman's home after discovering she was a lesbian. The attorney representing Elizabeth Hadaway said the child, Emma Rose, has been taken out of state foster care and returned to Hadaway's home. The young girl has been in the custody of the Georgia Department of Family & Children Services since February, despite the biological mother twice signing her parental rights away to Hadaway, whom she believed was better suited to raise the child. Emma Rose lived with H ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/5-25/news/legal/10636.cfm Fri, 25 May 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal Briefs
Brownback won't block judge who attended gay union
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Friday, May 18, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback grilled a judge who attended a same-sex union ceremony in 2002, but said he would no longer block her nomination. Brownback, a Kansas senator who opposes gay marriage, last year held up the nomination of Janet Neff to be a federal District Court judge in Michigan. The Senate Judiciary Committee had cleared Neff for the post, but Brownback had questions about her role in the same-sex ceremony, which surfaced because of a wedding announcement in the New York Times. The senator said in December he would stop blocking her nomination if he could question her and get a roll-call vote on the nomination by the fu ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/5-18/news/legal/10585.cfm Fri, 18 May 2007 05:00:00 EST Legislative Briefs
Mass. activists step up efforts to block marriage amendment
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Friday, May 11, 2007

BOSTON (AP) — As they scramble to change minds on Beacon Hill, gay marriage activists are pulling out all the stops. They are inviting skeptical lawmakers into the homes of recently married gay couples, holding ice cream socials, distributing pro-gay marriage DVDs and even asking the state's congressional delegation to appeal directly to legislators who may be on the fence. The goal? To block a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage in Massachusetts from reaching voters next year. The clock is ticking. State lawmakers met in a special joint session this week, and while it's unlikely a needed vote will happen then, Senate President Therese Murray h ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/5-11/news/legal/10548.cfm Fri, 11 May 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal Briefs
Fired trans Florida official says he won't sue city

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Friday, April 20, 2007

LARGO, Fla. (AP) — A city manager fired after revealing his plans to have a sex change said he will not sue the city that fired him and he will begin living as a woman full-time by the end of May. Steve Stanton, 48, said last week during taped segment on CNN's “Larry King Live,” that he will be living as Susan within the next two months. He said he and his wife will separate. Stanton had previously said taking Largo to court would be like “suing my mother,” but the city of 76,000 west of Tampa had expected him to sue. “It is tempting to seek retribution in the courts, but after much reflection and soul searching, I just cannot find it withi ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/4-20/news/legal/10417.cfm Fri, 20 Apr 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal Briefs
Lesbian moms take the stand in child-custody case
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Friday, April 13, 2007

pan class="photo">RUTLAND, Vt. — A ruling in a custody hearing that took place last week is yet to come but the non-birth mother of a pre-schooler born to a lesbian couple is hoping to see her daughter for the first time in more than two years this week. Janet Miller-Jenkins has been granted visitation rights for her daughter, Isabella, the Rutland Herald, a Vermont newspaper, reported last week. Janet and her ex-partner, Lisa Miller-Jenkins, both testified in a Vermont courtroom last week in the custody case. The case has gone back and forth between Virginia and Vermont courts since the couple separated about two years after Isabella, who'll be 5 this m ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/4-13/news/legal/10371.cfm Fri, 13 Apr 2007 05:00:00 EST Legislative Briefs
Funeral picketing bill goes to Kansas governo
By
Friday, April 06, 2007
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The home state of Rev. Fred Phelps and his followers, who protest military funerals with anti-gay rhetoric throughout the nation, finally may have a law regulating how close they can be to services with their placards and picketing. A picketing bill went to Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius last week, after the Senate voted 40-0 to approve a rewritten version first passed by the House. The governor is expected to sign it. It has the legal novelty of not taking effect until the Kansas Supreme Court or a federal court rules that it's constitutional. Legislators added the provision to lessen concerns that Phelps and his followers would file a legal challenge, win and colle ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/4-6/news/legal/10333.cfm Fri, 6 Apr 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal Briefs
Four plead guilty in East Village gay bias attack on Aviance
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Friday, March 30, 2007

NEW YORK (AP) — Four people who were accused of brutally assaulting a nightclub singer and recording artist in the East Village while yelling anti-gay slurs at him pleaded guilty last week to charges related to the attack. The four — Akino George, Gregory Archie, Jarell Sears and Gerard Johnson — admitted that last summer they chased, jumped and beat Kevin Aviance. The four began following Aviance around 1:30 a.m. on June 10, 2006, calling him derogatory names, police said. They threw two garbage bags and a paint can at the singer before attacking him, police said. The defendants punched and kicked Aviance, 39, in the face and body, breaking his jaw, bruisin ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/3-30/news/legal/10284.cfm Fri, 30 Mar 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal Briefs

By LOU CHIBBARO J
Friday, March 23, 2007
Two DP bills clear Congress, as two new measures introduced

A bill passed by Washington's City Council last December that allows registered domestic partners to file joint D.C. income tax returns beginning next year cleared the required 30-day congressional review period on March 14 and became law. A second bill approved by the Council in December giving registered domestic partners the same joint property ownership rights and debt obligations as married spouses also became law after clearing Congress' review period on March 14. In a separate development, gay D.C. Councilmember David Catania (I-At-Large) joined Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) on March 6 in introduc ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/3-23/news/legal/10248.cfm Fri, 23 Mar 2007 05:00:00 EST Legal Briefs
South Dakota deaf lesbian may face death penalty
By
Friday, February 23, 2007