By Lisa Keen on January 20, 2010
Testimony in the Proposition 8 trial Tuesday began with emotional testimony by San Diego’s Republican Mayor Jerry Sanders and ended with a clear hit against the claim that same-sex marriages will somehow do harm to straight marriages.
Posted in Ballot Measures, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships, News
By Lisa Keen on January 19, 2010
Tuesday morning’s testimony in the Proposition 8 trial began with riveting and emotional testimony by San Diego’s Republican Mayor Jerry Sanders, but the legal team scored a big victory during more testimony concerning economics.
Posted in Ballot Measures, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships, News
By Lisa Keen on January 17, 2010
It turns out that it shouldn’t have been a big surprise last year when conservative icon Ted Olson announced he would help lead the charge against Proposition 8, the initiative which bans legal recognition for same-sex relationships in California. Olson’s law firm is no novice at defending the rights of gays to get married.
Posted in A closer look, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships, News, State Courts
By Lisa Keen on January 17, 2010
In its second surprise move in a week, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday announced it would review another narrow dispute involving anti-gay activists’ alleged fear of harassment over their public opposition to legal recognition for same-sex relationships.
Posted in Cases, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on January 15, 2010
It’s not often one hears these words in a federal courtroom: “Dyke. You fucking dyke. You’re going to die and go to hell.”
Posted in Ballot Measures, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships, News
By Lisa Keen on January 15, 2010
There was some extra drama in and outside the courtroom this morning when one of the defense’s attorneys, David Thompson, told Judge Vaughn Walker that defense had withdrawn many of its witnesses because of their fears about being videotaped and subjected to harassment.
Posted in Ballot Measures, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships
By Lisa Keen on January 14, 2010
The discussion at the Proposition 8 trial Thursday swung from economics to mental health. Each inquiry had its legal purpose.
Posted in Ballot Measures, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships
By Lisa Keen on January 14, 2010
It was mostly a numbers game in the courtroom this morning during Day 4 of the federal trial challenging Proposition 8.
Posted in Ballot Measures, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships
By Lisa Keen on January 14, 2010
Attorneys defending Proposition 8 in a federal district court tipped their hand Wednesday on how they will try to show that allowing same-sex couples to marry might harm the institution of marriage.
Posted in Ballot Measures, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships, News
By Lisa Keen on January 13, 2010
Attorneys for Proposition 8 tried to make a case this morning for the notion that people could support the ban on same-sex marriage without feeling hostility toward gay people. Their prime exhibit: President Obama.
Posted in Ballot Measures, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships, News
By Lisa Keen on January 12, 2010
Attorneys challenging the California ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage painted the “Yes on 8” campaign today as a modern day copycat of Anita Bryant’s late 1970s campaign to “Save the Children.”
Posted in Ballot Measures, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships, News
By Lisa Keen on January 12, 2010
Take-home message from expert Nancy Cott’s testimony today: The push by gay and lesbian couples to obtain equal access to marriage has done much to improve the status of marriage in the U.S, not harm it.
Posted in Ballot Measures, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships, News
By Lisa Keen on January 12, 2010
The trial to challenge Proposition 8 in federal court got underway Monday in San Francisco but the opening acts were upstaged in Washington, D.C.
Posted in Ballot Measures, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships
By Lisa Keen on January 10, 2010
The trial to challenge Proposition 8 opens at 9 a.m. Pacific time this morning, and it promises to be an event of historic proportions for the LGBT community on many levels—legally, politically, and dramatically.
Posted in Ballot Measures, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships, News
By Dana Rudolph on January 9, 2010
A look at how Proposition 8 defenders seek to justify the same-sex marriage ban
What do gay political icon Harvey Milk, anti-gay marriage activist Maggie Gallagher, controversial military contractor Blackwater, and the Walibiri aborigines of Central Australia have in common?
Posted in A closer look, Ballot Measures, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships, News
By Dana Rudolph on January 6, 2010
In a long-running interstate dispute, an “ex-lesbian” in Virginia failed to show up last Friday to transfer custody of her seven-year-old daughter to the woman’s former civil union partner.
Posted in Cases, Law, Lawsuits, News, State Courts
By Lisa Keen on October 7, 2009
It was the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, during the 1987 March on Washington, that one of the movement’s largest and most intense moments of direct action was staged.
Posted in Cases, Issues, Law, News
By Lisa Keen on July 21, 2009
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was grilled twice on how she might rule should a same-sex marriage case comes before her on the high court.
Posted in Issues, Law, Marriage/Relationships, News, Nominees
Minnesota: Where the push for a marriage license began
Immigration bill advances without provisions for same-sex couples
Leahy submits language to help bi-national same-sex couples
Delaware votes for marriage equality; becomes 11th state to make it the law
Rhode Island marriage law signed; Two more states could vote next week