In this case, anti-gay groups asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a decision ordering the release of the names of 138,000 people who signed petitions supporting a ballot initiative to repeal basic protections for same-sex couples in Washington State. In November 2009, Washington voters rejected this attempt Referendum 71—and preserved the state’s domestic partnership law. The anti-gay groups were seeking to strike down a Washington law requiring disclosure of the petitions as public...
Tag
marriage equality
A statement from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell (San Francisco, CA, August 4, 2010)—Today in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a federal lawsuit challenging California’s Proposition 8, Judge Vaughn R. Walker of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco ruled that Proposition 8 violates the United States Constitution’s guarantees of due process and equal protection of the laws. In his ruling, Judge Walker states: “Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and...
Shows that Voters Don’t Move During Campaigns; Debunks Theories Explaining Persistent Discrepancies between Polls and Actual Results (San Francisco, CA, June 15, 2010) — A groundbreaking report released today analyzing a decade’s worth of polling on ballot measures regarding marriage for same-sex couples found that forces supporting and opposing marriage equality had little success at changing voter sentiment during these campaigns. Moreover, pre-election polls were consistently unreliable...
(Washington, D.C., March 8, 2010) — Today, Lambda Legal, American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Equality Maryland, and the American Civil Liberties Union released a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) guide for same-sex couples in Maryland who married out of state. These leading advocacy groups have jointly released the following statement: “This FAQ follows a favorable opinion by Maryland Attorney Douglas Gansler that says recognition of out-of-state...
A Statement from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell (San Francisco, CA, March 4, 2010) — Today Mexico City’s marriage equality bill takes effect, granting same-sex couples the rights, responsibilities and protections guaranteed by marriage, in addition to the right to adopt. The bill passed Mexico City’s legislature with a vote of 39-20 on December 21, 2009 and was upheld by Mexico’s highest court, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. Mexico City is the second municipality after...
A Statement from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell (Washington, D.C., March 3, 2010) — Today the District of Columbia began accepting marriage applications for same-sex couples, after Chief Justice John Roberts denied a last-minute request to stop the District’s same sex marriage law from taking effect. Washington D.C. became the sixth U.S. jurisdiction to allow same-sex couples to marry after the D.C. Council overwhelmingly passed the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Act of...
NCLR was a member of the Campaign for All D.C. Families, a diverse coalition working to achieve and preserve marriage equality for same-sex couples in the District of Columbia. Since July 6, 2009, D.C. has recognized the marriages of same- sex couples performed in other jurisdictions. On December 15, 2009, the D.C. City Council passed “The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009,” which permits same-sex couples to marry. Mayor Adrian Fenty signed the...
A.G. says state law calls for recognition of marriages of same-sex couples (Washington, D.C., February 24, 2010) — The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) hails the opinion issued today by Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler that the marriages of same-sex couples validly entered into in other jurisdictions may be recognized by the state. The decision predicts that the Maryland high court likely would “recognize a same-sex marriage contracted validly in another jurisdiction.”...
A Statement from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell (San Francisco, CA, January 29, 2010) —Today, the Department of Justice once again filed a brief defending the so called “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) in Gill v. Office of Personnel Development, a federal lawsuit challenging Section 3 of DOMA, which excludes same-sex couples from all federal benefits and protections given to heterosexual married couples. A statement from Kate Kendell, Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian...
Nancy C. is an emergency dispatcher with the Alameda County Fire Department. Nancy and her wife, a Canadian citizen, were married in Canada in October 2009. When Nancy learned about the passage of SB 54, the California law requiring the state government to grant all the rights and benefits of marriage to same-sex couples who get married in other states or countries after November 5, 2008, she asked her employer to add her wife as a beneficiary on her health and retirement plans. The human...