Cases & Advocacy
In re Marriage of S.
- Relationships & Family > Parenting
- Relationships & Family > Marriage & Relationships
- Relationships & Family > Reproductive Justice
NCLR assisted S., a transgender father in Chicago. S. has lived his entire adult life as a male and has undergone medical treatment for sex-reassignment. He also had his birth certificate changed to reflect his male gender. S. married in 1985. He and his wife had a child together in 1992 through alternative insemination. When S. filed for divorce in 1998, his wife counter-petitioned to have their marriage declared void and to terminate S.’s parental rights.
MoreCases & Advocacy
Koebke v. Bernardo Heights Country Club Amicus
Birgit Koebke and Kendall French, a lesbian couple who have been domestic partners for 12 years, sued the Bernardo Heights Country Club for refusing to provide them with the same membership benefits given to different-sex couples and for allowing other members to harass and insult them because of their sexual orientation.
MorePress & Media
Cherokee Court Rejects Petition to Block Same-Sex Marriage
Cases & Advocacy
Kantaras v. Kantaras
- Relationships & Family > Parenting
- Relationships & Family > Marriage & Relationships
- Relationships & Family > Reproductive Justice
In June 2005, love, patience, and persistence, combined with a visionary judge and a little help from Dr. Phil, led to an historic settlement agreement between NCLR client Michael Kantaras and his former wife. Michael, a transsexual father, has been fighting for almost seven years to retain his parental rights to his two children, aged 16 and 13.
MorePress & Media
NCLR Presents Closing Argument In California Marriage Equality Case
Press & Media
NCLR Responds to Anti-Gay Groups in California Marriage Equality Case
Press & Media
NCLR Files Reply Brief in Woo v. Lockyer
Resources & Publications
The California Insurance Equality Act
Cases & Advocacy
Cozen O’Connor, P.C. v. Tobits
Jennifer Tobits and Sarah Ellyn Farley married in Toronto in 2006. Two weeks after their wedding, Ellyn was diagnosed with cancer. The Chicago couple fought the disease together for their entire marriage, until Ellyn passed away in September 2010. Because Ellyn’s parents had never accepted her marriage to Jennifer, they feared that Ellyn’s parents would make legal claims to their property and generally attack Jennifer’s status as Ellyn’s spouse.
MoreCases & Advocacy
Smith v. Knoller
In 2001, Diane Alexis Whipple was killed by two dogs in the hallway of her apartment building in San Francisco where she lived with her life partner, Sharon Smith. NCLR and co-counsel represented Ms. Smith in a wrongful death case. The defendants argued that Ms. Smith could not pursue a wrongful death claim since the couple was unmarried. In a historic ruling, San Francisco Superior Court Judge A. James Robertson II held that Ms. Smith was a “surviving spouse” and that any other reading of the law “has no place in our system of government” and would “unduly punish Ms. Smith for her sexual orientation.”
More