A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, has affirmed a ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story that the Georgia General Assembly's Office of Legislative Counsel violated the Equal Protection rights of Vandiver Elizabeth Glenn, a transgender woman, when she was discharged for transitioning from male to female while employed by the OLC.  Glenn v. Brumby, No. 10-14833, 10-15015 (Dec. 6, 2011).

Both … <Read More>

After the Marriage Equality Law was enacted by the New York legislature last summer, some opponents of the law filed a lawsuit in Livingston County Supreme Court, seeking a declaration that the law was invalidly enacted and an injunction striking it from the statute books.  Their lawsuit, titled New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom v. New York State Senate, No. 807-2011, was assigned to Acting Justice Robert B. Wiggins.  Their case rested on two contentions: first, … <Read More>

A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, reversing a ruling by District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin, has granted summary judgment to the City of New York, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and individual defendants from the law enforcement community, finding that the officers enjoyed qualified immunity from liability for false arrest and malicious prosecution, asserted by a gay man caught up in an alleged sting operation carried out by the NYPD against gay men patronizing stores selling … <Read More>

The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the proponents of Proposition 8, the voter initiative that amended the California Constitution in 2008 to provide that only the marriage of one man and one woman will be recognized or valid in California, have standing as a matter of state law to represent the state's interest in defending the constitutional amendment from a federal constitutional challenge.  Perry v. Brown, 2011 WL 5578873 (November 17, 2011).

Answering questions certified to … <Read More>

New York State Supreme Court Justice Louis B. York has granted summary judgment in favor of Richard Jefferys, one of three defendants in a defamation lawsuit brought by Celia Farber, a journalist who has written numerous articles presenting in a favorable light the contention that HIV is not the cause of AIDS.  Justice York's decision involves only the allegations against Jefferys, who is associated with the Treatment Action Group (TAG), and does not concern the other … <Read More>

An opinion by U.S. District Judge William Young (District of Massachusetts) issued on October 31, 2011, in Liberty Media Holdings, LLC v. Swarm Sharing Hash File & Does 1 through 38, 2011 WL 5161453, raises the issue whether anonymous defendants being sued for copyright infringement regarding gay pornographic films are entitled to maintain their anonymity while participating in the lawsuit, on the grounds of a right to avoid being "outed" as part of the litigation.  … <Read More>

Richard Peterson pled guilty to wire fraud and engaging in the business of insurance after having been convicted of a felony involving dishonesty or breach of trust on July 19, 2005.  He subsequently executed a Post-Plea Sentencing Stipulation, under which he agreed to forfeit to the federal government his ownership interest in two properties: a building on Clayton Street in San Francisco containing three apartments (in one of which he had resided with his same-sex … <Read More>

U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra has granted summary judgment in favor of a Florida beauty academy that was charged by an expelled gay student with violating Title IX, a federal statute that bans sex discrimination by educational institutions that benefit from federal funding.  Judge Marra found that the insults suffered by Luis Rodriguez were not sufficiently severe to constitute hostile environment sexual harassment, and that the school had responded appropriately when issues were brought to … <Read More>

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit affirmed the denial of a writ of habeas corpus sought by Andrew Lee Boyer, an Oregon man who was convicted of attempted aggravated murder (together with several other sexual offenses) in an Oregon state court upon evidence that, knowing that he was HIV-positive and had been diagnosed with AIDS, he had anally penetrated two teenage boys without using a condom.  Although Boyer claimed … <Read More>

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit granted an "emergency motion" to stay the district court's Order releasing the recordings of the trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger on the constitutionality of California Proposition 8, pending an appeal on the merits of that Order.  Proposition 8, approved by California voters in 2008, amended the state's constitution to provide that only a marriage between one man and one woman would be … <Read More>