Maine’s highest court ruled on January 30 that a transgender girl attending Maine public schools is entitled to use the girl’s restroom. Voting 6-1, the court reversed a contrary ruling by the Penobscott County Superior Court. The dissenting judge agreed that the right of transgender students to use the restroom of their choice should be protected, but argued that the legislature needed to amend the state’s public restroom statute to reach that result. Justice Warren … <Read More>
Legal Issues
N.Y. Surrogate Denies Second-Parent Adoption for Married Lesbian Mom
Claiming that a married lesbian had no need to adopt the child born to her same-sex spouse, Kings County (Brooklyn) Surrogate Court Judge Margarita Lopez Torres refused to entertain her adoption petition in Matter of Seb C-M, NYLJ 1202640083455 (Jan. 6, 2014).
Torres reasoned that under New York’s Marriage Equality Law, same-sex marriages enjoy the same presumptions of parental status that are accorded to different-sex marriages. Thus, a child born to a married woman is … <Read More>
New Virginia Attorney General Abandons Defense of Same-Sex Marriage Ban, Urging Federal Court to Strike it Down!
Recently inaugurated as Attorney General of Virginia, Democrat Mark Herring, who had run on a platform supporting same-sex marriage, was immediately faced with a strategic decision. The Attorney General’s office represents the state’s Registrar of Vital Records, Janet M. Rainey, who is the lead defendant in two federal lawsuits challenging the state’s constitutional and statutory ban on same-sex marriage. One lawsuit, brought by private plaintiffs who are now represented by David Boies and Ted Olson … <Read More>
Don’t Do This Home Alone in Kansas! Court Holds Sperm Donor Liable for Child Support
A man who responded to a Craigslist ad placed by a lesbian couple in Kansas seeking a sperm donor to help them have a child is considered the legal father of the child, ruled a Kansas judge on January 22, because he provided his sperm directly to the couple in a sample cup rather than submitting it to them through a doctor. The court found unenforceable a document that the man and the couple had … <Read More>
9th Circuit Holds Sexual Orientation Requires Heightened Scrutiny in Gay Juror Case
A unanimous three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today in Smithkline Beecham Corp. v. Abbott Laboratories that a new trial has to be held because Abbott, the defendant in a civil suit involving claims about the pricing of HIV medications, used one of its “peremptory challenges” to exclude a gay man from the jury. The court found that excluding people from a jury because they are gay violates the … <Read More>
1st Circuit Affirms Order for Sex Reassignment Surgery for Life Inmate
A three-judge panel of the Boston-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit voted 2-1 to affirm the district court’s decision that the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (DOC) violated the 8th Amendment when it refused to provide sex-reassignment surgery for Michelle Kosilek, who is serving a life-sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder of her wife. The ruling may not conclude the action, since the state’s staunch opposition to providing the surgery … <Read More>
Oklahoma Federal District Court Declares Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment Unconstitutional
Yet another federal district judge has declared a state constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriages an unconstitutional infringement of rights under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. On January 14, Senior U.S. District Judge Terence C. Kern, who has been dealing with the case of Bishop v. United States since 2004, held that the constitutional amendment adopted by an overwhelming vote of Oklahoma citizens that year, fails to meeting the deferential “rationality review” test … <Read More>
Same-Sex Marriages in Utah – “On Hold”?
On December 20, 2013, US District Judge Shelby ruled in Kitchen v. Herbert that Utah’s constitutional amendment and statutes banning the performance or recognition of same-sex marriages violated the 14th Amendment. He was ruling on cross-motions for summary judgment. Since the state’s motion did not ask him to grant a stay in case his ruling went against them, he didn’t stay his ruling, which culminated in an injunction barring enforcement of the same-sex marriage ban. … <Read More>
Supreme Court Blocks Utah Marriages Pending 10th Circuit Decision
This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the following order:
MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 2014
ORDER IN PENDING CASE
13A687 HERBERT, GOV. OF UT, ET AL. V. KITCHEN, DEREK, ET AL.
The application for stay presented to Justice Sotomayor and
by her referred to the Court is granted. The permanent
injunction issued by the United States District Court for the
District of Utah, case No. 2:13-cv-217, on December 20, 2013, is
stayed pending final disposition of … <Read More>
New York Surrogate Court Approves Gay Father’s Adoption of Child as Co-Parent with Straight Mother
There’s a subtext to New York County Surrogate Court Judge Rita Mella’s adoption decision, Matter of the Adoption of a Child Whose First Name is G, which is published January 6, 2014, in the New York Law Journal. The man petitioning to be adoptive parent of G, a little girl born in Ethiopia who was adopted in 2011 by the man’s close friend, is gay, and the child’s adoptive mother is not gay. Therein lies … <Read More>