A Statement from NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter (Washington, D.C., December 15, 2009) — Today, in a final vote of 11-2, the Washington, D.C. City Council passed legislation to end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage. The bill, championed by City Councilmember David A. Catania, first sailed through the Council with overwhelming support on December 1. Mayor Adrian Fenty has pledged to sign the bill immediately. Next, the bill heads to Capitol Hill for a 30-day legislative review...
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State legislation
A Statement from Executive Director Kate Kendell (San Francisco, California, December 2, 2009) — Today, in a 38-24 vote, the New York State Senate failed to pass a bill which would have extended the right to marry to same-sex couples. As Lisa Keen of Keen News Service reported in the Bay Area Reporter, Senator Bill Perkins, an African American Democrat from Harlem, addressed the bill’s openly gay sponsor, Tom Duane (D-Manhattan), by saying “Thank you, brother.” Then he turned to the galley...
(San Francisco, California, October 27, 2009) — The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) applauds the passage of California’s SB 54, a bill authored by Senator Mark Leno and signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on October 11, 2009. SB 54 clarifies the rights and responsibilities of same-sex couples who get married outside of California. NCLR worked closely with Equality California and Senator Leno’s office to support the measure throughout the legislative process, from...
Motion filed in response to judge’s call for information to resolve ‘factual disputes’ (San Francisco, California, July 8, 2009)—Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today asked the U.S. District Court in San Francisco to allow Our Family Coalition, Lavender Seniors of the East Bay, and Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays to intervene in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a federal lawsuit challenging California’s...
Today, a Sacramento Superior Court dismissed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate SB 777, the California Student Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against students on the basis of race, religion, disability, gender, and sexual orientation. The lawsuit was brought by a right-wing group that specifically objected to protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. The court held that the plaintiffs had failed to show any way in which the statute was even allegedly...
Advocacy Groups Vow to Return to Polls to Restore Marriage for Same-sex Couples (San Francisco, CA, May 26, 2009)—Today, in a 6 to 1 decision, the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, the ballot measure that eliminated the right of same sex couples to marry. In the ruling authored by Chief Justice Ronald George, the Court stated “We emphasize only that among the various constitutional protections recognized in the Marriage Cases as available to same-sex couples, it is only the...
Grupos de abogacía juran que volverán a la boleta para restaurar el matrimonio para las parejas del mismo sexo (San Francisco, CA, 26 de Mayo, 2009)— En una decisión de 6 a 1, la Corte Suprema de California confirmó hoy la Proposición 8, el plebiscito que eliminó el derecho a casarse a las parejas del mismo sexo. En el fallo por el juez Ronald George, presidente de la Corte Suprema, la corte dictaminó “Hacemos hincapié que dentro de las varias protecciones constitucionales reconocidas en los...
(San Francisco, CA, May 26, 2009)—Today, in a 6 to 1 decision, the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, the ballot measure that eliminated the right of same sex couples to marry. At the same time, the court unanimously ruled that the more than 18,000 marriages that took place between June 16 and November 4, 2008 continue to be fully valid and recognized by the state of California. The decision reaffirmed the Court’s prior holding that sexual orientation is subject to the highest...
(Sacramento, CA, March 19, 2009)—Civil rights groups representing thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Californians filed a friend-of- the-court brief on Wednesday in support of Attorney General Jerry Brown’s request to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to invalidate SB 777, the Student Civil Rights Act. The amicus brief by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Lambda Legal, the Transgender Law Center, Equality California, and Gay Straight Alliance Network (GSA...
Attorney General, Governor, and nation’s top civil rights groups agree: Invalidate Prop 8 (San Francisco, CA, February 3, 2009)—The California Supreme Court announced today that it will hear oral arguments on Thursday, March 5, 2009 in the Proposition 8 legal challenge. The National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU—with support from civil rights groups, religious organizations, labor unions, and legal scholars—argue that Proposition 8 is invalid because the people of...