Tag: marriage equality

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Federal judge orders Tennessee to recognize 3 couples same-sex marriages

A federal judge has ordered the state of Tennessee to recognize the legal marriages of three same-sex couples while their lawsuit is under consideration based on the judge’s opinion that the couples will ultimately win their case.

From Buzzfeed:

In considering the request for a preliminary injunction, U.S. District Court Judge Aleta Trauger wrote that “all relevant federal authority indicates that the plaintiffs in this case are indeed likely to prevail on their claims that the Anti-Recognition Laws are unconstitutional.”

The plaintiffs, she noted, filed the case only on their own behalf, so the temporary ruling affects only the state’s treatment of the three couples.

In granting her injunction, Judge Trauger wrote that “all signs indicate that, in the eyes of the United States Constitution, the plaintiffs’ marriages will be placed on an equal footing with those of heterosexual couples and that proscriptions against same-sex marriage will soon become a footnote in the annals of American history.”

You can read the judge’s opinion at Buzzfeed.

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Three states see new lawsuits seeking marriage equality – Arizona, Florida and Indiana

Lots of legal action happening today in the world of marriage equality.

Via press release, Freedom To Marry announces a trio of federal lawsuits concerning marriage protections for same-sex couples filed in three different states today.

The cases – filed in Arizona, Florida, and Indiana – join more than 50 other lawsuits where same-sex couples are seeking the freedom to marry or respect for their marriages performed in other states.

Marriage equality litigation is currently pending in 28 different states, and in seven of these states, appeals are now before federal appellate courts.

Filed today:

ARIZONA

Lambda Legal filed this federal lawsuit – Majors v. Roche – in Arizona on behalf of seven same-sex couples – and the surviving spouses of two other same-sex couples – seeking the freedom to marry or respect for legal marriage licenses received in other states.

The plaintiffs include married same-sex couples, couples who want to marry in Arizona, and individuals whose same-sex spouses have passed away without Arizona ever respecting their status as a married couple. The lead plaintiffs are Nelda Majors and Karen Bailey (pictured), who are both in their 70s and have been together for more than 55 years.

FLORIDA

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida filed this federal lawsuit – Grimsley and Albu v. Scott – on behalf of SAVE, an LGBT organization in Miami and eight married same-sex couples seeking respect for their marriages legally performed in other states.

The lead plaintiffs are Sloan Grimsley and Joyce Albu, who work as a firefighter and a consultant assisting parents of children with developmental disorders, respectively. The women have been together for nine years, married in New York in 2011, and are raising a 2-year-old child together.

INDIANA

Lambda Legal filed this federal lawsuit – Baskin v. Bogan -on behalf of three same-sex couples seeking the freedom to marry in Indiana.

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Lance Bass for Marriage Equality in Mississippi

Mississippi residents Lance Bass and his fiancé Michael Turchin share why they are Southerners for the Freedom to Marry.

Via Freedom To Marry:

It’s an exciting time to be a Southerner, Randy.

Change is really happening down here, and it’s coming so much faster than I ever thought possible when I was growing up in Mississippi.

Despite the incredible progress we’ve made, not a single southern state has the freedom to marry yet — and it’s time we take our movement to the next level to make that happen.

People here in the South really do support loving same-sex couples and I know that from my own experience. We can win the freedom to marry here, but it’s going to take all of us working together. Let’s continue the conversation about why marriage matters.

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Quote of the day: Andrew Sullivan

Results from the latest Pew poll regarding marriage equality

From Andrew Sullivan’s essay today on the ever-rising support for marriage equality:

“Simply put: it’s extremely hard to oppose marriage equality when you know someone who is gay. It requires you to hold a position that clearly treats the human being in front of you as inferior – or at least it sure can feel that way.

“This doesn’t mean there isn’t a reasoned, theological argument that gays should be denied equal treatment under the law. It simply means that even if you hold that principled position, you will increasingly feel like an isolated asshole with gay friends, family members and colleagues.

“And few actively want to be an asshole.”

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Marriage News Watch – March 10, 2014

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From the American Federation for Equal Rights:

Two more polls show public support for marriage equality at a historic high — and our opponents at a historic low.

Marriages are happening early in Illinois, we have new lawsuits in Florida and Wyoming, and Kentucky’s Attorney General takes a stand against the state’s marriage ban.

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Ninth Circuit Court schedules April 9th for Nevada same-sex arguments

https://twitter.com/ScottKGraham/status/443105190720192512

Nevada’s court date is just one day before Utah will see it’s same-sex marriage appeal in the Tenth Circuit on April 10th.

From Lambda Legal:

Last month Nevada Gov. Sandoval and Carson City Clerk-Recorder Alan Glover withdrew their arguments in support of the marriage ban after the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in SmithKline Beecham v. Abbott Laboratories that discriminatory classifications based upon sexual orientation must receive heightened scrutiny and should be presumed unconstitutional.

The heightened scrutiny standard is much more difficult to meet and rendered the state of Nevada’s arguments in its original brief defending the marriage ban “no longer tenable in the Ninth Circuit,” as Nevada’s Attorney General conceded in a statement released last week.

The withdrawal of the two government defendants leaves only the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, which the U.S. District Court had allowed to intervene, defending the marriage ban.

UPDATE: Lambda Legal advises the court date has been rescheduled due to high case load in the 9th Circuit. Looking at a May or June court date at this point.

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Poll: 61% of young Republicans support marriage equality

A new poll released Monday by the Pew Research Center reports that 61% of young Republicans under age 30 favor same-sex marriage.

Only 35% of Republicans and Republican-leaners under 30 are opposed.

Meanwhile, about 70% of independents and Democrats under 30 support marriage equality.

More proof why the legalization of same-sex marriage everywhere in America is merely a matter of time.

I vote for sooner rather than later.

Forward.

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Conservative commentator Michael Medved at CPAC: No state has ever banned gay marriage

Conservative commentator Michael Medved at CPAC

I posted earlier about Oliver North speaking at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) which is the right-wing’s favorite week to try and “out cheer-lead” each other as speaker after speaker and conference panel after conference panel tries to make the movement sound like the most rational folks on earth. Which, by the way, they aren’t.

Just to show you how loose the rhetoric gets, earlier today during a panel called “Can Libertarians and Social Conservatives Ever Get Along?,” conservative commentator Michael Medved flatly stated “There has never been a state in this country that has ever banned gay marriage.”

No punchline. That was it. No state had ever denied same-sex couples marriage rights.

As everyone in American knows (and anyone who reads The Randy Report) 30 states specifically prohibit same-sex marriage. Only 17 states plus Washington DC allow for marriage equality.

This is what goes on at these things. A WHOLE lot of misinformation.

Watch the clip below via Media Matters:

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Award-winning singer/songwriter Justin Utley’s powerful testimony to Utah legislators on LGBT equality

Watch the powerful testimony of OutMusic Award winner Justin Utley to Utah lawmakers at a meeting organized by Utah state senators Steve Urquhart (R) and Jim Dabakis (D), and attended by a group of legislators from both sides of the aisle to begin a dialogue between lawmakers and the LGBT community in search of tolerance, understanding and protected rights.

Justin spoke to the crowd about experiencing discrimination first hand when he lost his job after an employer found an email he sent about the death of his gay partner. “She (his employer) said that had they known I was gay during the interview process, they would not have hired me.”

But Justin’s view of the future for his home state remains hopeful. “There is a spoke in the wheel of this state that needs to be fixed. My hope is that together, from this moment on, we can build that bridge of understanding and we can begin to work together to build a state that we can all be proud of.”

Justin’s OutMusic Award-winning song “Stand For Something” was born from his own desire to motivate community action towards securing LGBT equality in America.

Watch his full testimony below: