The headline in a Michigan newspaper reported this as the court rejecting a "gay panic" defense, which may be overstating things slightly.  Nonetheless, the decision by the Michigan Court of Appeals to uphold the verdict in People v. Cutler, No. 296078 (June 16, 2011)(unpublished disposition), is certainly welcome.

Dale Cutler was convicted of assault with intent to do great bodily harm and was sentenced as a habitual offender-fourth offense to serve 11-25 years and to make … <Read More>

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Daniel R. Moeser has rejected a constitutional challenge to the validity of Wis. Stats. Chapter 770, the Domestic Partner Registry Act, finding that it does not create a "legal status" that is "identical or substantially similar" to marriage.  Judge Moeser granted a motion for summary judgment filed by the Intervenor-Defendants, Fair Wisconsin, Inc., and a group of same-sex couples.  Although the state defendants, former Governor James E. Doyle and two … <Read More>

Today The Advocate published on its website an interview with Albert Pisani, the Air Force member who was recently discharged under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Policy for being gay.  There had been much speculation about this discharge, because generally such discharges had stopped last fall after Defense Secretary Robert Gates changed the rules to require that the subcabinet level Secretaries of the various services personally sign off on any DADT discharge.  People wondered whether … <Read More>

In a pair of opinions released on June 15, Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware of the Northern District of California denied a motion by the Proponents of Proposition 8 to set aside last summer's ruling by now-retired Chief Judge Vaughan Walker (which held Prop 8 to be unconstitutional), and also denied a motion by the Proponents to require all parties to surrender copies of the video/audio recording of the trial that are in their … <Read More>

In a most unusual action, twenty U.S. Bankruptcy Judges in the Central District of California have joined together in an opinion denying a motion by the United States Trustee to dismiss a bankruptcy petition that was jointly filed by a same-sex married couple, holding that to grant the motion would deny the petitioners' equal protection rights under the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution.  The June 13 ruling in In re Gene Douglas Balas … <Read More>

A New York State trial judge, finding himself bound by intermediate appellate precedent in the absence of a ruling on the question by the state's highest court, has refused to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought by a man who claims he was falsely alleged to be gay or bisexual and to be actively engaging in homosexual activity.  Yonaty v. Mincolla, 2011 N.Y. Slip Op 51037(U) (Supreme Court, Broome County, June 8, 2011).  According to Justice … <Read More>

With the House of Representatives in Republican hands and the number of Republicans in the Senate sufficient to prevent a vote on anything they solidly oppose, the Obama Administration is limited in what it can accomplish for the LGBT community that requires legislation.  But the process of scrutinizing existing statutes and regulations and figuring out what might be accomplished through administrative actions continues.  In June 2009 the President marked Gay Pride Month by instructing the … <Read More>

Yesterday the California 2nd District Court of Appeal issued a decision in LA County Department of Children and Family Services v. R.G., 2011 Westlaw 2206846 (not officially published), which sets out in some detail the kind of problems that some gay kids encounter due to the homophobia of their parents.  The court of appeal affirmed the finding of the LA County Superior Court that it had jurisdiction under the child protection provisions of California … <Read More>

Taking an eminently pragmatic position, the Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled unanimously in Christiansen v. Christiansen, 2011 WY 90, 2011 WL 2176486 (June 6, 2011), that a same-sex couple married out of state  can seek a divorce in the Wyoming courts.  Reversing  a subject-matter jurisdiction-based dismissal by Niobrara County District Judge Keith G. Kautz, the court found that allowing access to Wyoming courts for divorces did not conflict with the state's policy against allowing … <Read More>

Another U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge has rejected a DOMA-based motion by the U.S. Trustee to dismiss a joint bankruptcy filing by a married same-sex couple.  In In re Ziviello-Howell, Case No. 11-22706-A-7 (May 31, 2011), Judge Michael S. McManus of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California, finding that the case before him was "substantially similar" to In re Somers, 2011 WL 1709839 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2011), and followed the persuasive … <Read More>