December will be a busy month for homosexual 'marriage' issues as courts in Oregon and California consider the fate of about 7,000 same-sex 'marriages' and a Louisiana court considers the validity of a newly passed marriage amendment, according to the Washington Times. In the Louisiana case, District Court Judge William Morvant ruled that the marriage amendment, which passed Sept. 18, was unconstitutional because it defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman and prohibited recognition of 'any union of unmarried individuals.' Morvant agreed with gay-rights lawyers that the amendment illegally contained more than one subject. Oregon's case, scheduled for Dec. 15 before that state's Supreme Court, also tests a new marriage amendment. Finally, in California, on Dec. 22, a lawsuit seeking marriage rights for same-sex couples has a hearing before San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer.
A Vermont Family Court judge has ruled for the first time that both members of a same-sex civil union are the legal parents of a child, according to the Associated Press. Judge William Cohen has ruled that Janet Miller-Jenkins of Fair Haven is a parent to a child born by artificial insemination to Lisa Miller-Jenkins. The decision continues a legal dispute that pits the courts of Vermont against those in Virginia. The women lived in Virginia when they entered a civil union in Vermont four years ago. They eventually moved to Vermont after having a child and then split up. A Virginia judge had granted Lisa Miller-Jenkins full custody of the child. The battle is expected to wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court.
In another groundbreaking decision, the Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled that lesbian partners who agree to conceive a child through artificial insemination are both the legal parents of any children born to them, according to 365Gay.com . In a unanimous ruling, the court said that 'no ( legitimate ) reason exists to provide the children born to lesbian parents through the use of reproductive technology with less security and protection than that given to children born to heterosexual parents through artificial insemination.'
A Texas state appeals court upheld a woman's adoption of her former lesbian partner's biological daughter, the Galveston County Daily News reported. Attorneys for the child's biological mother, Julie Hobbs, told the newspaper that the ruling cited problems with the form of the appeal, not its merits, and that they would consider appealing the decision to the Texas Supreme Court. Hobbs and Kathleen Van Stavern were living together as a couple when Hobbs was artificially inseminated and gave birth in 1998. Three years later, Van Stavern successfully adopted the child. Family Court Judge Jan Yarbrough's ruling upheld the parental rights of Van Stavern, who is seeking joint custody of the child.
In Kansas, the Topeka City Council narrowly approved an ordinance prohibiting bias in city hiring or employment based on sexual orientation.
In Wyoming, Casper city councilman Guy Padgett will become the city's first openly gay mayor and its first mayor under 30 years old, 365Gay.com reported. Padgett, 27, was informally voted in as mayor for next year by the city council. Casper was murder victim Matthew Shepard's hometown.
U.S. House and Senate negotiators have tucked a potentially far-reaching anti-abortion provision into a $388 billion must-pass spending bill. The language would bar federal, state, and local agencies from withholding taxpayer money from healthcare providers that refuse to provide or pay for abortions or refuse to offer abortion counseling or referrals.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights and its co-counsel, Lambda Legal and the ACLU, filed a reply brief with the San Francisco County Superior Court in the California marriage equality lawsuit, Woo v. Lockyer, according to NCLR's press release. NCLR responded to a brief filed by Attorney General Bill Lockyer which defended California's refusal to permit same-sex couples to marry. Lockyer argued that California does not have to permit same-sex couples to marry because it has provided them with domestic partnership.
In South Dakota, a transgendered Rapid City alderman has staged a personal protest by refusing to stand for the invocation or Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of council meetings, according to the Rapid City Journal. Ald. Tom Murphy said that the nation is heading so far to the right that civil liberties and the Constitution are threatened.
National Stonewall Democrats announced that Dave Noble will step down as executive director in February.
In Ohio, Cincinnati tourism officials are targeting gays who had previously taken their convention business elsewhere because of a charter provision banning laws protecting LGBT people from discrimination. 365Gay.com reported that the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau sent letters to 200 groups that cited gay rights issues as a reason for not hosting meetings there. Residents voted to repeal the 11-year-old, anti-gay Article XII after leaders warned that it was harming the city's economy.
President Bush's re-election insures that more federal money will flow to abstinence education that precludes discussion of birth control, even as the administration awaits evidence that the approach gets kids to refrain from sex, according to Newsday. Congress included more than $131 million for abstinence programs in a $388 billion spending bill, an increase of $30 million, but about $100 million less than Bush requested. Meanwhile, a national evaluation of abstinence programs has been delayed, with a final report not expected until 2006. Ten state evaluations, compiled by a group that opposes abstinence-only education, showed little change in teens' behavior since the start of abstinence programs in 1997.
A 16-page advertising insert arguing against gay marriage ran in some editions of The Washington Post Nov. 21, Editor & Publisher reported. The insert sparked more than 1,000 e-mails and phone calls according to ombudsman Michel Getler, who said most of the comments opposed the publication as offensive. The advertorial did not run in the metro edition of the Post, according to Getler, but could be found in about 200,000 zoned copies. It was labeled 'BothSides Magazine' and appeared to be a creation of Grace Christian Church, with support from a number of Virginia-area churches.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against a Missouri high school that twice admonished a gay student for wearing T-shirts bearing gay pride messages, according to The New York Times. The suit charges that the school violated the youth's constitutional right to free expression. By ACLU's account, Brad Matthewson, 16, was sent to the principal's office at Webb City High School on Oct. 20 for wearing a T-shirt that he said came from the Gay-Straight Alliance at a school he previously attended, in Fayetteville, Ark. The shirt bore a pink triangle and the words 'Make a Difference!' A week later, Matthewson was again admonished for wearing a gay T-shirt, this one featuring a rainbow and the inscription 'I'm gay and I'm proud.'
It didn't take long for Michigan to feel the impact of its new ban on gay marriage, according to the Detroit News. With five state unions about to ratify new contracts that allow gay workers to extend their benefits to domestic partners, several groups are likely to use the new law to challenge those benefits. The American Family Association of Michigan said its passage prohibits the state from treating gay relationships like marriages.
In Massachusetts, more than 500 people gathered at Boston's Colonnade Hotel on Nov. 18 to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's Goodridge v. Department of Public Health decision, according to Bay Windows.
Wisconsin state Sen. Cathy Stepp said hundreds of voters asked her to support a gay marriage ban in Madison, not for moral reasons but to send a message to the courts. She has worked to fulfill the requests by co-sponsoring a constitutional amendment in Wisconsin, according to the Journal Times Online. Stepp, R-Yorkville, predicts Wisconsin voters could see a referendum on the ballot for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage within two years.
Charles Campbell, 21, of Clearwater, Fla., has been missing for two-weeks, reported Tampa Bay's 10 News. He was last seen at the Suncoast Resort Hotel, a gay community hot spot in south St. Petersburg. Campbell's mother said police have offered little help because there is no evidence of foul play. Campbell's friends have posted his picture on Web sites and created www.findcharles.com . Campbell's disappearance comes nearly a year after two other gay men disappeared.
