LGBTQ news and entertainment
Marriage News Watch is traveling the country to see what’s happening in different states with marriage equality.
This week Matt Baume visits Nevada and covers the latest news from Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, Virginia, and West Virginia.
More info at afer.org.
From the American Foundation for Equal Rights:
• Wisconsin’s marriage ban found unconstitutional
• There have been more big defeats for the National Organization for Marriage
• Utah officials resist a ruling that they must recognize the marriage licenses that the state issued to gay and lesbian couples last winter
• Pennsylvania voters show their support for the freedom to marry
More than sixteen and a half million Americans gained marriage equality last week, with decisive victories in Oregon and Pennsylvania.
There are brand new lawsuits in the last few states that needed one.
And the National Organization for Marriage has suffered even more losses this week.
• Marriage equality comes to Oregon as the National Organization for Marriage screws up again.
• Judges in Idaho and Arkansas rule that marriage bans violate the US Constitution.
• Following another round of hearings, rulings are due any day now in Virginia and Pennsylvania.
• And a new lawsuit in Alaska leaves just three states with an unchallenged marriage ban.
Today, in a historic milestone for the marriage equality movement, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will hear oral argument for the first time on the constitutionality of whether gay and lesbian couples have the right to marry.
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in February in Bostic v. Schaefer that laws prohibiting gay and lesbian couples from marrying the in state are unconstitutional as they violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The case will be heard by a three-judge panel including: Judge Henry F. Floyd, appointed by President Barack Obama, Judge Roger L. Gregory, first appointed in recess by President Bill Clinton then renominated by President George W. Bush, and Judge Paul V. Niemeyer, appointed by George H.W. Bush.
• AFER heads back to court this week to protect its latest marriage equality win.
• Kentucky’s Attorney General is running to become the state’s first pro-equality Governor.
• Oregon surveys look encouraging, but voters could still pass a turn-away-the-gays discrimination bill.
• A new public education campaign in puts LGBT family members front and center in Oklahoma.
From the American Foundation for Equal Rights:
• South Dakota’s Attorney General says he’ll fight a lesbian couple in court to stop them from having their marriage recognized.
• Alaska’s highest court has ruled against the state’s marriage ban after a deliberation of over a year and a half.
• Several new lawsuits, plus a major ruling coming this week in Arkansas.
From the American Federation for Equal Rights:
• The National Organization for Marriage is scrambling to defend Oregon’s marriage ban at the last minute, but things aren’t exactly going how they’d hoped.
• The case to overturn Virginia’s marriage ban gets a boost from one of the authors of the state’s constitution.
• The Governor of Pennsylvania wants to skip a trial on marriage and go straight to a ruling.
From the American Foundation for Equal Rights:
• The lawyer who led the defense of Proposition 8 now says his attitudes are evolving as he plans his daughter’s lesbian wedding.
• Michigan officials are trying to invalidate hundreds of couples’ marriage licenses, but now those couples are fighting back.
• A Judge in Ohio has issued one of the most strongly-worded rejections of a marriage ban to date.
From the Foundation for Equal Rights:
• A Republican icon comes out in support of marriage equality
• A sting of major marriage wins in the last few months, but now anti-gay groups will keep trying to tear those victories down in a series of hearings
• Support for marriage equality is picking up in conservative states
• A terminally ill woman in Indiana is one step closer to getting her marriage recognized
• More lawsuits on the horizon in the south.