Maine has a proud history of tenacity in its pursuit of civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. In November 2005, after several rounds of legislative action and ballot measures stretching over 12 years, Mainers voted to uphold their LGBT non-discrimination law by a margin of more than 10 percent. A similar [...]

This is from the anti-LGBT Massachusetts Family Institute’s 5.5.10 E-Alert, on the subject of GLAD’s Section 3 challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).  The case is being heard in federal district court today (Thursday). “The court should reject this thinly-veiled attempt to impose same-sex marriage on American citizens who have overwhelmingly voted [...]

“An Act Relative to Gender-Based Discrimination and Hate Crimes” (H. 1728/S. 1687) got a hearing last July in the Massachusetts Joint Committee on the Judiciary.  Then, nothing.  In light of the recent poll showing that 76% of Massachusetts voters, including 81% of women, support passing a law, isn’t it high time that the bill got [...]

Today, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) filed a Motion for Summary Judgment in US District Court as part of their response to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Motion to Dismiss Gill v. OPM, a challenge to Section 3 of DOMA.  DOMA Section 3 prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.  The DOJ [...]

Today the Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss Gill v. Office of Personnel Development, GLAD’s lawsuit challenging Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).  DOMA Sec. 3 prevents the federal government from recognizing legally married couples if the spouses aren’t of different sexes.   As in other DOMA-related filings from the [...]