Under longstanding legal principles in most American jurisdictions, and definitely in California, when a married woman has a child, her spouse is presumed to be the legal parent of the child. When California first established legally-recognized domestic partnerships for same-sex couples, this status brought with it only a limited menu of rights and responsibilities. However, through a few rounds of amendments, the domestic partnership status was expanded to come close to matching the legal rights … <Read More>
Legal Issues
D.C. Officials May Face Liability for Mistreatment of Transgender Detainee
A transgender woman complaining of mistreatment by District of Columbia police and federal marshalls after her arrests has convinced a U.S. District Judge that she has pled viable 4th and 5th Amendment complaints against several officers and the D.C. city government. Ruling on May 13, Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle did dismiss some charges against some defendants, but allowed most of Patti Shaw’s claims to continue to discovery and, perhaps, to trial.
Shaw states in her … <Read More>
Hong Kong’s Highest Appeal Court Says Transgender Woman Can Marry Her Boyfriend
Overruling the Registrar of Marriages in Hong Kong, who refused to issue a marriage license to a “post-operative” transgender woman who sought to marry her male partner, the Court of Final Appeal of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ruled on May 13 that the woman, identified as W in court papers, was entitled to the license, although the majority of the court was not unanimous in its reasoning. Ironically, such a right for a … <Read More>
NY Family Court Uses Judicial Estoppel In Lesbian Co-Parent Custody Case
Suffolk County, N.Y., Family Court Judge Theresa Whelan used the doctrine of judicial estoppel to find that a lesbian mother who had previously acknowledged her former partner’s parental status when seeking a support order from the court, was precluded from denying the partner’s parental status in opposition to a custody/visitation petition. Judge Whelan’s April 2, 2013, ruling was published in the New York Law Journal on May 10.
The parties, identified as Estrellita A. and … <Read More>
Iowa Supreme Court Rules for Lesbian Couple in Birth Certificate Dispute
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on May 3 that a state law providing that the husband of a married woman who gives birth to a child is the presumptive father is unconstitutional to the extent that it doesn’t also provide such a presumption of parentage for married lesbian couples. Although the court rejected a lower court ruling interpreting the statute to lead to such a result, the court affirmed the lower court using its alternative … <Read More>
Circuit Judge Dings DOMA and Oregon Marriage Amendment in Grievance Ruling on Benefits
Judge Harry Pregerson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, sitting as Chair of the 9th Circuit’s Standing Committee on Federal Public Defenders, ruled that Alison Clark, an assistant federal public defender in the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Oregon, is entitled to received coverage for her same-sex spouse under the Federal Employees Health Care Benefits Program. In the Matter of Alison Clark, Case No. 13-80100
… <Read More> Federal Judge Certifies Class Actions Against DOMA Section 3
A federal district judge in Los Angeles has certified a nationwide class action lawsuit attacking the constitutionality of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act in the context of spousal immigration rights. Having denied a motion to dismiss the case by the Justice Department and the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the House of Representatives (BLAG) on April 19, Judge Consuelo B. Marshall then determined in a separate ruling that plaintiff Jane DeLeon and … <Read More>
New Jersey Appeals Court Revives Gay Teacher’s Discrimination Claim against Private School
A unanimous panel of the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court ruled on April 13 that Ronald Savoie, an openly-gay teacher who had been forced to resign after more than twenty years at the Lawrenceville School, is entitled to a trial on his claims that the School violated his rights under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and the public policy of New Jersey. The appellate court reversed a decision by the trial … <Read More>
Unprotected Sex as “Aggravated Assault” – Are Military Courts Getting Competent Expert Testimony on HIV?
The U.S. Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals has affirmed the conviction of an HIV-positive Airman for failing to obey a lawful order, indecent acts, aggravated assault, and adultery, upholding the court martial’s sentence of dishonorable discharge, eight years confinement, total forfeitures of pay and benefits, and reduction in grade. The basis for the charge? Tech. Sgt. David Gutierrez and his wife participated in group sex activities with others without Gutierrez disclosing he was HIV-positive, … <Read More>
Virginia Attorney General Goes to the Mat to Save Unconstitutional Sodomy Law
Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli has asked the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider and overrule a decision by a three-judge panel of that court that held last month that Virginia’s sodomy law is facially unconstitutional. Citing the dissenting opinion by one member of the panel ruling in MacDonald v. Moose, Cuccinelli emphasized that the case involving an adult man who solicited a teenage girl to have oral sex, and argued that Virginia should … <Read More>