Defense of Marriage Act

Another Big Day for Same-Sex Marriage as the Supreme Court Hears Arguments on DOMA

Following yesterday's hearing on California's Proposition 8 (whose decision will likely fall into the hands of swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy), another case is coming through the Supreme Court this morning. The justices are hearing arguments on the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Mar ... More >>

AG Eric Schneiderman Thinks SCOTUS Should/Will Strike Down DOMA

Today, the Supreme Court will begin hearings on the cases pending constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act and Prop 8. It is the first legal step in a process that will end in June, when the Nine is expected to release its opinion to the public - one that could have drastic effects on the ri ... More >>

Supreme Court Hears Arguments Against California's Same-Sex Marriage Ban, Punts

At approximately 10:15 this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court started hearing arguments on Proposition 8, the 2008 California initiative that banned same-sex marriage in the state. It was the court's first major hearing of gay rights in 10 years, and will be followed by consideration of the Defense of ... More >>

White House Files Voluntary Amicus Brief, Demands SCOTUS Overturn Prop 8

Nothing like a Presidential push to get the ball rolling. Yesterday was the deadline for parties to file amicus curae briefs -- or "Here's what we think you should do" memos -- to the Supreme Court before the Nine hears the arguments facing DOMA and Prop 8 at the end of March. And, in this past wee ... More >>

LGBTQ Reactions to President Obama's Second Inaugural Address

Toward the end of his second inaugural speech today, President Obama said that, "our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law ... More >>

[UPDATE]: Prop 8 and DOMA Head To The Supreme Court

UPDATE: According to the New York Times, the Supreme Court agreed this afternoon to decide on the constitutionality of the Proposition 8 appeal and the Defense of Marriage Act.It is, arguably, the most significant social battle in America's courts since Roe v. Wade or even Brown v. the Board of Educ ... More >>

DOMA Unconstitutional, Rules New York Appeals Court. But It's Not Dead -- Yet

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York ruled today that parts of the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) are unconstitutional because they discriminate against same-sex couples.But don't get your hopes up just yet -- the issue of DOMA's constitutionality will li ... More >>

Edith Windsor, Octogenarian Lesbian Widow: Take My DOMA Case to the Supreme Court!

Edith Windsor, the octogenarian lesbian widow who successfully sued the federal government for over chariging her $363,000 in estate taxes, wants to take her case to the Supreme Court. According to a press release from the New York Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Windsor along with the ... More >>

Mitt Romney Might Pick a Woman Running Mate. What's His Record With The Ladies?

Team Romney might pick a woman as Mitt's running mate, reports now indicate. As the Atlantic Wire's Elspeth Reeve pointed out, this marks a drastic shift from the campaign's previous "no more Palins" / "boring white guy" approach to potential veeps, which "appeared to rule out not just candidates w ... More >>

BREAKING: League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Passes Same-Sex Marriage Equality Resolution

Another Saturday, another national group of brown people proves Toure right by being homophobic passes a same-sex marriage equality resolution. LULAC, the League of United Latino American Citizens, passed a resolution at their annual convention today in suport of equal marriage rights for same-sex ... More >>

Edith Windsor, Octogenarian Widow, Beats Down DOMA (and Gives John Boehner a Piece Of Her Mind)

Pride month has just started, and yet over the course of May and just the first few days of June, the fight for gay marriage has arguably seen more progress in the last four weeks than in any time in history. In fact, if you're a journalist on the gay marriage beat who also writes about other things ... More >>

Chris Geidner of Metro Weekly on Why Yesterday's Ruling Against DOMA Is The Most Important Gay Marriage Case Right Now

Yesterday saw a major legal blow (perhaps the most significant one yet) to the Defense of Marriage Act, as the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the federal government's definition of "marriage" and "spouse" are unconstitutional as limited to just applying to opposite sex married ... More >>

Obama Finally Loses Support Of A Black Leader Over Gay Marriage, And It's...Farrakhan!

Over the past few weeks, we've been waiting for some fallout -- any fallout -- with black Americans over President Obama's support for same-sex marriage. Instead of the promised backlash, we've mostly heard the sound of crickets (unless you count the sounds of support from a majority of polled black ... More >>

The Voice Talks Gay Marriage and Race on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show [AUDIO]

After publishing our piece yesterday "5 Reasons Why Touré Is Wrong On Blacks, Gay Marriage and Obama," we had the chance to talk about the president's new support fo marriage equality with WNYC's Brian Lehrer. We took calls from black listeners and talked to Lehrer about the many reasons why we b ... More >>

SSM Update: NJ Gov Follows Through On Promise To Veto Bill, Maryland On The Road To Equality

On Thursday, we told you about the passage of a bill in New Jersey's Assembly that would make same sex marriage legal in the state. N.J. Governor Chris Christie promised that he would veto the bill when it landed on his desk, and he held true to his word. The New York Daily News says that Christie w ... More >>

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo Endorse the Respect for Marriage Act

​Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Respect for Marriage Act, on a party line vote of 10 to 8. The bil, if passed, would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and make same-sex marriages legal through out the United States. (The bill will never pass, however, for it would ... More >>

Iowa Still Ground Zero on Gay Marriage

​More than two years before New York got its shit together last summer, the über-progressive state of Iowa made same-sex marriage legal in 2009. The decision came from the state's Supreme Court, which drew from their state constituion's long history of being way ahead of the curve on civil ri ... More >>

Eric Schneiderman, NY Attorney General, Argues Against DOMA

​New York's attorney general is working to prove the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. AG Eric Schneiderman filed a brief today, the New York Times reports, supporting Edith Windsor, who is suing the United States because the federal government would not recognize her Canadian ... More >>

Chris Geidner of Metro Weekly on DOMA and the Respect for Marriage Act (VIDEO)

Recently, we asked Metro Weekly's Chris Geidner to help us understand the Obama administration's legal strategy for pursuing gay rights in the courts. Yesterday, we chatted with Geidner again, about the Defense of Marriage Act and the proposed Respect for Marriage Act. It was Geidner who asked Press ... More >>

Chris Geidner of Metro Weekly on DOMA and the Respect for Marriage Act (VIDEO)

Recently, we asked Metro Weekly's Chris Geidner to help us understand the Obama administration's legal strategy for pursuing gay rights in the courts. Yesterday, we chatted with Geidner again, about the Defense of Marriage Act and the proposed Respect for Marriage Act. It was Geidner who asked Press ... More >>

Religious People are Excited for Same-Sex Sunday Weddings, Too

​With self proclaimed religious values groups like the National Organization for Marriage and Westboro Baptist Church protesting this Sunday, as well as Focus on the Family going before the Senate to hail the Defense of Marriage Act yesterday, it may seem like religious people are universally ... More >>

Barack Obama Will Support Legislation Repealing DOMA

​Today White House press secretary Jay Carney announced that President Obama will endorse the Respect for Marriage Act, which repeals the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and would grant all lawfully married couples, including same-sex couples, federal marriage benefits and protections. Carney s ... More >>

Barack Obama Tries to Reinstate Don't Ask, Don't Tell Yet Again Before Ending It

​Although the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the United States government to immediately halt Don't Ask, Don't Tell, military recruiters across the nation seem to be dragging their feet, and Obama's Justice Department has asked the court for a stay on their order "by the close of busin ... More >>

Chris Geidner of Metro Weekly Attempts to Explain Obama's LGBT Legal Reasoning (VIDEO)

Ever confused about just what the Obama administration's legal reasoning is when it comes to LGBT rights? So are we! And when we can't quite make out just what it is Obama is trying to do legally, we often turn to lawyer-journalist Chris Geidner of Metro Weekly and the Poliglot blog. Geidner says ... More >>

How Will the Law Recognize Your Same-Sex Marriage? The NYCLU Explains

After July 24, no one​The New York Civil Liberties Union has created an excellent guide to what same-sex couples can expect legally after they've tied the knot. The Marriage Equality Act creates a certain level of legal equality for same-sex couples under New York State law, but in no way does ... More >>

Court Orders Immediate Halt to Don't Ask, Don't Tell

​ The military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy barring gay and lesbian soldiers from serving openly seems to have been dealt a mortal blow yet again. Legally, it was substantially wounded last year when U.S. Judge Virginia Philips issued an injunction and refused to grant a stay during its ap ... More >>

Mike Bloomberg Gives Case for Marriage Equality at Cooper Union

Mayor Bloomberg gave a forceful speech for gay marriage yesterday at the Cooper Union, placing the marriage equality debate in the context of the fights for women's suffrage, abolition, and abortion rights. He spoke of the issue nationally, but grounded it in New York's specific civil rights histor ... More >>

More George Takei! His Coming Out!

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This Week on the Gay Marriage Beat: Whoppers and Lies, Fence-sitting and Delays

​A gay couple can have a whopper of a hard time just trying to order a sandwich at Burger King, let alone trying to obtain a license to get hitched. Here are six more things you should know to keep it all straight.

This Week in Gay Marriage: Six Things You Need to Know To Keep It All Straight

​There was a flurry of activity across the United States on gay marriage this week at both the state and federal levels, from the nation's capital all the way to Honolulu. It might be harder to keep it all straight than, say, Ted Haggard on crystal meth or George Rekers with a rent boy. Here's ... More >>

Obama Decides Defense of Marriage Act is Unconstitutional

​Attorney General Eric Holder released a statement today explaining that President Obama will no longer "defend the constitutionality" of the part of the Defense of Marriage Act that bans gay marriages. There are two suits currently filed in the Second Circuit court challenging the law, which ... More >>

Barack Obama's Shift on Gay Marriage, and What It Means

​ Today's announcement that President Barack Obama's Justice Department will stop defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) seemed to come out of nowhere — unless you think the administration was emboldened by the election of alum Rahm Emanuel as mayor of Chicago. ... More >>

Federal Employees Can Buy Insurance For Their Dogs, But Not For Their Same-Sex Partners

​Workers who receive Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) today learned that they can buy Aetna health insurance for their pets if they so desire. But if the employees are LGBT, of course, they still can't buy insurance for their partners, thanks to the lingering Defense of Marriage Act!

On Gay Rights, Barack Obama Fights the Bad Fight

Barack Obama has tried to walk a fine line between talking LGBT rights and not doing much about it, and some gays and lesbians have given him a pass on not going on the offense on their behalf during a time of two wars and a comatose economy. But the dwindling LGBT support the president has is pro ... More >>

"A Republican Gay Group Sues to Repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' in Federal Court and Wins!

​"And the administration of our 'fierce advocate' Barack Obama defends the law and loses. "Is anyone noticing a pattern here? "It is an echo of when, in 2009, the Obama administration in court defended the Defense of Marriage Act, signed by President Clinton, as a protection against incest. ... More >>

A Gay Man Considers Joining the GOP

Is it possible that Republicans could prove to be a closer ally?

Harold Ford Jr., with Kirsten Gillibrand in Sight, Flips for Gay Marriage

​Transplanted Tennessean Harold Ford Jr., reported looking at a run against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the upcoming Democratic primary, seems to realize he's not in Dixie anymore, and has reversed himself in favor of gay marriage. When Ford ran for the Senate in his old home state in 2006 ... More >>

City To Be Less Gay This Weekend

​Expect the city to be a little less gay this weekend. Thousands of gay and lesbian New Yorkers will be heading out of town to attend the National Equality March in Washington, D.C. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and presumptive incoming Queens City Councilman Danny Drom have organized ... More >>

Ciinton Heckled on Don't Ask Don't Tell and DOMA at Netroots Nation

Bigtime leftwing bloggers and web apparatchiks are at Netroots Nation (aka NN09) in Pittsburgh, and in these palmy Democratic days they get big speakers, including former President Bill Clinton. But the Big Dog's reception at a talk last night was not trouble-free. He was heckled by Lane Hudson, w ... More >>

Obama Defends DOMA, Pisses Off Gay People

Boy, this is turning out to be a shitty Pride Month. With the Albany coup making the New York gay marriage bill more problematic than ever, state senator Tom Duane, previously rumored open to joining the rebels to get the bill passed, now says he's completely behind Malcolm Smith and seems to indica ... More >>

Letters

Walking the Plank

Off the Court

New bill would block federal judges from hearing key gay-marriage cases

It's the Symbolism, Stupid

Gay Marriage and the Future of American Politics

Separate Still Not Equal

If Gay Marriage Is the Question, Civil Unions Aren't the Answer

Get Back!

The Gathering Storm Over Gay Rights

The Tax Man Must Be Straight

Lesbian, Gay, and Binational

Bill Proposes Immigration Rights for Queer Couples

Out of the White House Closet

Gay Rights Steps Out As Presidential Politics Comes to New York

The Ubiquitous Candidate

In the final days of the primary, Chuck Schumer is everywhere