Finding that learning that one is HIV-positive is "a changed circumstance materially affecting his asylum eligibility," the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals, an administrative tribunal within the U.S. Department of Justice, has reversed a decision by an Immigration Judge to deny asylum to a gay, HIV-positive man who had not filed his asylum petition within one year of arriving in the U.S., as normally required by the relevant statute.

The July 14, 2011, decision by the Board … <Read More>

On June 24, the New York State Legislature passed and Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Marriage Equality Act of 2011 (MEA), which authorized marriages by same-sex couples while providing broad protections for religious dissenters.  The Act took effect 30 days later, on July 24 (a Sunday), when city and county clerk offices in many parts of the state specially opened to make it possible for same-sex couples — many of whom had been … <Read More>

As a result of actions taken yesterday by the Obama Administration and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel in the Log Cabin Republicans case, together with statements made by DoD personnel at a press briefing yesterday, here is where things seem to stand as of today:

DADT is repealed, effective September 20, 2011.  (The precise time of day when repeal takes effect is uncertain, but it may be around 3 pm, which would be 60 … <Read More>

This afternoon,  President Obama transmitted to the chairs and ranking minority members of the Senate and House Committees with military oversight the certification signed by himself, Secretary of Defense Panetta, and Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Mullen, that the requirements set forth in the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, Public Law 111-321, have been met.  This transmission means that the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy under which gays in the … <Read More>

New York courts have been nibbling around the issue of terminating out-of-state civil unions for a while now.  Beginning in 2000, same-sex couples could go to Vermont to get civil unions without fulfilling any residency requirement, and many did so.  The problem came in terminating those civil unions.  Vermont, in common with almost every other state, has a real residency requirement for divorce cases, and when they passed the Civil Unions Act, they adopted the same requirement for … <Read More>

New York Supreme Court Justice Doris Ling-Cohan has rejected a motion to dismiss a discrimination claim brought by two gay men who claim to have been harassed by security guards at a McDonald's Restaurant on 42nd Street in Manhattan on November 26, 2008.  The two men, Bowling and Barton, sought damages for discrimination and infliction of emotional distress.  Justice Ling-Cohan dismissed the emotional distress claim in her ruling filed on July 12, 2011.

According to their … <Read More>

Consider this chronology:

July 6, 2011.  9th Circuit panel issues an Order lifting the stay and allowing the injunction against enforcement of the "don't ask, don't tell" military policy to go into effect.  The injunction was issued late last summer by US District Judge Virginia Phillips in Log Cabin Republicans v. US, upon her finding that the DADT policy was unconstitutional.  The Justice Department (DOJ) sought a stay of the injunction while the government … <Read More>

It seems there are almost daily new developments on the military "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and the associated lawsuit brought by Log Cabin Republicans.  Yesterday the Justice Department filed an Emergency Motion with the 9th Circuit, asking that the policy continue in effect until the certification process mandated by the DADT Repeal Act of 2010 can be completed.  The 9th Circuit had previously lifted a stay of the October 2010 injunction against enforcement of … <Read More>

The Ohio Supreme Court has affirmed lower court rulings that a lesbian co-parent could not seek "shared custody" of the child she was raising with her former partner, finding that there was evidence in the record from which the juvenile court could conclude that the women had not expressly agreed to shared custody.  Two of the seven justices dissented on the ground that the majority opinion did not make any new law, so review should … <Read More>

Chris Geidner, the excellent lawyer-blogger over at MetroWeekly,com, seems to have an inside channel into the 9th Circuit.  At any rate, every day he seems to be breaking some new development on an LGBT-related case from that very busy federal appeals court.  The latest is a demand by the court that the Obama Administration explain its position in a pending appeal involving a challenge by a criminal defendant to the prosecution's use of a peremptory … <Read More>