Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry, making the state the third behind Massachusetts and California to legalize gay unions.
It wasn't so long ago that you may have tried to have a civil discussion with a Republican co-worker who would say with a straight face (ahem) that the reason he votes Republican is nothing against gay rights, it's just for economic reasons. It's a little like telling a slave during the Civil War that his enslavement was nothing against him, it's just an economic thing.
Rather than slugging your office mate, you could calmly tell him that the stock market always does better with a Democrat in the White House...
In a majority decision, California's Supreme Court spells out in unequivocal language that all Californians have a constitutional right to marry.
The ruling has galvanized anti-gay activists who plan to bring the issue to California voters in November with a ballot initiative to amend the state's constitution to read "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid." Gay rights proponents, however, stand ready to do battle against the bigots.
Unmarried couples in Miami-Dade County won the right to hospital and jail visitation on Tuesday, following a contentious 8-4 vote by the County Commission. County employees will also be able to buy health coverage for their partners.
New York's Gov. David Paterson has issued a directive likely to involve as many as 1,300 statutes and regulations in the state governing everything from joint filing of income tax returns to transferring fishing licenses between spouses.
In unequivocal language supporting the rights of gay individuals, the governor's office said that state agencies that did not provide “full faith and credit to same-sex marriages” could be subject to liability.
On the heels of the good news last week, that California's Supreme Court said same-sex couples should be allowed to marry starting June 17, anti-gay rights groups have gathered enough signatures to qualify a ballot initiative for November that would limit marriage to opposite sex couples only.
Against the obstreperous pleadings of anti-gay religious groups, California's highest court on Wednesday refused to stay its decision legalizing same-sex marriages in the state, clearing the final hurdle for gay couples to start tying the knot June 17.
Just how will legal marriage differ from the state-recognized domestic partnerships already in place?
On the heels of the California Supreme Court's decision that said gay couples have a right to be married, the justices are back on the bench hearing the case of two doctors (and their clinic) who refused to provide artificial insemination for a lesbian on religious grounds.
Conservative Republican, California Chief Justice Ronald George said denying "certain basic rights could not be justified just because of history and tradition."
The exchange of wedding vows extended up and down the state yesterday, as dozens of gay couples got married Monday, with the help of at least five county clerks extending their hours to issue marriage licenses.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday presided over the marriage of a Hollywood producer and his five-year companion in a short ceremony at City Hall.
After one of the longest state legislative sessions on record, Arizona senators on Friday approved a measure sending a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to the fall ballot.
Gay pride was celebrated around the country and the world on Sunday.
It may be a horse race to say which city -- New York or San Francisco -- had the monopoly on spirited crowds. But with California's famous governor nowhere in sight, NYC may have won by a nose by the cheering throngs who treated New York's über gay-friendly governor like a rock star.
The Massachusetts Senate voted unanimously yesterday to strike down a 95-year-old law that blocks gay and lesbian couples from most other states from being married in Massachusetts.
The California Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the lawsuit by gay rights advocates seeking to remove from the Nov. 4 ballot an initiative that would ban gay marriage in the state.
Bruce Bastian, the man who co-founded the WordPerfect software company, has donated a million dollars to the help fight Proposition 8, the California initiative that seeks to ban gay marriage in the state with a constitutional amendment.
Same-sex couples who live outside Massachusetts can now marry in the state. Gov. Patrick also signed into law a first-in-the nation measure allowing all married couples to receive Medicaid benefits.
The California state attorney general has said marriages performed before the November ballot vote will remain valid, even if the measure banning gay marriage in the state is approved by voters.
Attorney General Jerry Brown has made it plain that he believes upholding marriages performed before Nov. 4 would be "a just result."
Although Sarah Palin, John McCain's pick for VP, has only held an executive, state-wide office for less than two years, she has already shown that she is a fierce opponent of equality and gay rights.
Breaking with the prevailing Democratic party line that says famiy members are "off limits," the only openly gay member of Congress is also among the first Democrats to publicly ask questions about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s family background, including the pregnancy of her unwed teenage daughter.
Republicans stressed Palin's conservative family values in announcing her selection as McCain's running mate -- a glaring inconsistency, says Barney Frank, between the social philosophy that blames liberalism for divorce and teen pregnancy and the facts of Palin's family life.
Palin's church is promoting a conference that promises to turn homosexuals into heterosexuals by praying the gay away--a precept whose practices have been rebuked by all mainstream psychological assocations.
A Florida judge has ruled that the state's 31-year-old gay adoption ban is ''unconstitutional" because it singles out a group for punishment.
Judge David Audlin Jr.'s ruling said the law violates the state Constitution's separation of powers by preventing family court and child welfare judges from deciding case-by-case what is best for a child.
A nonpartisan adoption group has concluded that gays and lesbians are an important resource for children awaiting adoption and is pushing for non-heterosexual adoption bans to be rescinded in states such as Florida and Utah.
Perhaps it's fitting that the first Fortune 500 company to offer health benefits to the domestic partners of gay employees will co-chair a group created to encourage businesses to oppose California's November gay marriage ban initiative.
Levi Strauss has pledged $25,000 to Equality for All, co-chairing with public utilities company, Pacific Gas & Electric, who in July donated $250,000 to the "No on 8 campaign."
More gay couples were married in California in the first three months of legal gay marriage in the state than were married in the first four years the practice was sanctioned in Massachusetts.
More than 11,000 same-sex couples were married since June in Calif., while only 10,385 said "I do" in Mass., since 2004.
Gay Americans are required to pay their fair share of tax duties despite a federal government that fails to represent them. Since when is it conservative to let the US Constitution, which was designed to protect and ensure equal treatment for all Americans, be used instead for an unwarranted government intrusion into the private choices made by a taxpaying couple? A GFN Op/Ed by Forbes Senior Editor Elizabeth MacDonald.
In an act of civil disobedience, a gay New York couple walked into the Oyster Bay, N.Y., Town Clerk's office and refused to leave until they were given a marriage license. Instead, they received tickets for tresspassing. But the couple was there to make a point.
The case against same-sex marriage falls apart ... even using a Conservative's yardstick. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently couldn’t resist jumping into the fight to make his case for straight marriage...
Federal and state tax laws routinely gouge gay couples in a variety of ways, via inequities in the estate tax, income tax, inheritance tax or gift tax. And when it comes to other important financial issues, like housing, or bequeathing estates, or nursing home care, gay couples must use contract law as the flimsy, threadbare cover to protect their relationships.
GFN's political columnist Elizabeth MacDonald writes on same-sex marriage.
The American Family Association announced it is ending its two-year boycott of Ford Motor Co., saying that its goals were met and the company has suffered sufficiently for its support of gay organizations.
"In the face of plummeting car sales, Ford Motor Company has taken steps to reduce its aggressive pro-homosexual policies," wrote the group's leader.
But are Ford's flagging sales really a result of a boycott? Automotive insiders beg to differ.
Eliot Spitzer's pyrotechnic fall from grace may be very good news for gay New Yorkers. With the installation of David. A Paterson as governor of the Empire state, gays finally have an ally who is not only sympathetic but empathetic.
"When I was growing up nobody was openly gay." Paterson once said. "If they appeared to be gay they got ridiculed with all sorts of epithets. I’m a human being and I once felt as they did..."
Gay club owners fear “devastating” impact from smoking ban .
New York Court Says No to Gay Marriage N.Y. Appellate Court reverses lower court decision that found that barring same-sex couples from marriage violates the state’s constitution.
Gay pride was celebrated around the country and the world on Sunday.
The California state attorney general has said marriages performed before the November ballot vote will remain valid, even if the measure banning gay marriage in the state is approved by voters.
The American Family Association announced it is ending its two-year boycott of Ford Motor Co., saying that its goals were met and the company has suffered sufficiently for its support of gay organizations.
Eliot Spitzer's pyrotechnic fall from grace may be very good news for gay New Yorkers. With the installation of David. A Paterson as governor of the Empire state, gays finally have an ally who is not only sympathetic but empathetic.