Court: Fla. must recognize states’ gay adoptions
Florida must recognize gay couples’ adoptions that were granted in other states even though its laws bar granting such adoptions, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.
A trial court erred when it wouldn’t recognize a former lesbian couple’s adoptions that had been completed when the women lived in Washington state, the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled unanimously. Florida is the only state that prohibits all gays from adopting, but the judges said the U.S. Constitution requires it to give “full faith and credit” to the actions of other states.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/court-fla-mus…
Verdicts upheld in murder of transgender teen
NEWARK — A state appeals court upheld the murder convictions of two East Bay men today for their roles in battering and strangling a transgender teenager after learning she was biologically male.
The killing of 17-year-old Gwen Araujo of Newark in 2002 drew national attention to incidents of violence against transgender people, which often include defense claims that the victim provoked the attack by having sex under false pretenses.
In this case, lawyers for both defendants argued that the slaying was manslaughter at most, because their clients had acted in the heat of passion when they learned the person with whom they had had oral and anal sex was born male. But the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled 3-0 that the Alameda County trial judge had defined the crimes properly to the jury, and that the panel had substantial evidence for second-degree murder convictions.
Mark Greenberg, a lawyer for defendant Michael Magidson, said he would appeal to the state Supreme Court.
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Justice Department not taking stand on appeal of gay officer’s firing
Calling it a “procedural decision,” the U.S. Justice Department is staying out of a federal lawsuit challenging the dismissal of an Air Force officer under the military gay ban being reviewed by a federal court. Former Air Force Maj. Margaret Witt’s case was dismissed by a federal judge, but is now being reconsidered by order of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Washington Blade * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Gay adoption before Fla. Legislature, courts
The state Legislature is faced with a bill aimed at overturning the state’s 1977 ban on gay adoption, and Florida’s Third District Court of Appeals must resolve a lawsuit over the issue stemming from Gill’s case. The case is likely to move on to the Florida Supreme Court.
The court case will likely resolve questions posed by gay rights advocates before the bill does.
The legislation is expected to die without coming to a vote before the Legislature adjourns next week.
“This year the bill is not going to be going anywhere to be honest with you,” said the sponsor, Sen. Nan Rich, D-Sunrise. “The best chance to get a change in this state … will be with Gill.”
The high court will hold preliminary hearings soon on Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman’s ruling that allowed Gill to adopt the boys in November. Her ruling said the ban violates equal protection rights for the children and their prospective gay parents.
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MiamiHerald.com
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Court lets private schools expel lesbians
The state Supreme Court left intact Wednesday a lower-court ruling that said a private religious high school wasn’t covered by California civil rights law and could expel students it believed were lesbians.
Over Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar’s dissent, the court denied review of an appeal by parents of two girls who were expelled from a high school in Riverside County. A lawyer for the parents said the ruling, which is binding on trial courts statewide, would allow private schools to discriminate against students on any basis they chose, including sex and religion.
The girls were juniors at California Lutheran High School in the town of Wildomar when the principal, Gregory Bork, called them to his office in September 2005 and questioned them separately about their sexual orientation, after another student reported postings on their MySpace pages.
Bork suspended the girls based on their answers, and the school’s directors expelled them a month later. The girls, who later graduated from another high school, have not been identified and have not discussed their sexual orientation, said their parents’ attorney, Kirk Hanson.
The parents sued under the Unruh Act, a 1959 state law that forbids discrimination by businesses. It was amended in 2005 to include bias based on sexual orientation and someone else’s perception of sexual orientation. State education law also prohibits anti-gay bias, but that applies only to public schools.
In January, the Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Bernardino said the school is not a business but instead a social organization entitled to follow its principles.
Although California courts have defined such organizations as a Boys Club and the Rotary Club as businesses covered by the Unruh Act, the appeals court cited a 1998 state Supreme Court ruling that allowed the Boy Scouts to exclude gays and atheists. Like the Boy Scouts, the appellate panel said, a private religious school exists mainly to instill its values in young people.
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California Court of Appeal Affirms Right of Transgender Individuals Living Out-of-State to Change California Birth Certificates
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Equality California (EQCA) is the largest statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender-rights advocacy organization in California. In the past decade, EQCA has strategically moved California from a state with extremely limited legal protections for LGBT individuals to a state with some of the most comprehensive civil-rights protections in the nation. EQCA has passed over 50 pieces of legislation and continues to advance equality through legislative advocacy, public education and community empowerment. www.eqca.org
The Transgender Law Center (TLC) is a civil rights organization advocating for transgender communities. TLC uses direct legal services, education, community organizing, and advocacy to transform California into a state that recognizes and supports the needs of transgender people and their families. www.transgenderlawcenter.org
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Transgender woman wins birth certificate ruling
A 67-year-old Los Angeles native, now living in Kansas, won a state appeals court ruling in San Francisco on Friday that makes it easier for California-born transgender people to change their birth certificate, a document that can be critical in a security-conscious age.
Gigi Marie Somers was born male but has lived most of her life as a woman, and underwent sex-change surgery in 2005. She got a driver’s license with her new name and gender and sought a new birth certificate, but learned that Kansas was one of the few states that will not change a resident’s sex designation on a birth certificate.
Somers then turned to a California court, only to discover that a 1977 state law requires an application for a sex change on a new birth certificate to be filed in the county where the applicant now lives.
But Friday, the First District Court of Appeal said the law violates the rights of someone like Somers to be treated the same as a transgender person who still lives in California.
Any law that penalizes someone for moving to another state restricts the constitutional right to travel and can be justified only if it meets an urgent government need, which doesn’t exist in this case, Justice James Marchiano said in the 3-0 ruling.
For anyone in a similar situation, the case is important because of “the emphasis placed on identity documents in our post-9/11 world,” said attorney Matt Wood of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco, which represented Somers.
He said the federal government and employers are increasingly requiring birth certificates or passports to establish the identity of applicants for various programs and jobs.
Legislation that would have the same effect as the court ruling, AB1185 by Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance (Los Angeles County), was introduced in February but hasn’t passed yet, Wood said.
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DOMA threatened by judge’s ruling?
Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal government’s denial of benefits to the same-sex spouse of a public defender lacks “rational basis” and is therefore unconstitutional. The ruling isn’t applicable as precedent because it resolved an internal dispute within the federal judiciary and not an actual lawsuit. Still, the decision was seen by some observers as challenging the Defense of Marriage Act. Los Angeles Times/L.A. Now blog (free registration
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Rulings on gay couples’ benefits question Defense of Marriage Act
Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled earlier this week that Sears — who married Levenson, a deputy federal public defender, last July — is entitled to the same spousal benefits that heterosexual couples employed by the department receive.
“I’m not convinced this is over,” Levenson said of their long-running battle to be treated like a married couple. “But it pushes the conversation forward.”
Reinhardt’s ruling branded the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. The 9th Circuit’s chief judge, Alex Kozinski, also weighed in on the subject last month, granting benefits to the same-sex spouse of a staff attorney for the court. But he stopped short of basing that decision on constitutional grounds.
The 9th Circuit judges ruled in their capacity as dispute-resolution officials within the federal judiciary, whose employees are prohibited from suing in federal court.
Levenson and Sears see Reinhardt’s order as a step along the road to equality.
But Levenson pointed out Thursday that his attempt to file a new benefits form was rejected by an office computer still programmed to exclude same-sex spouses from even applying.
See Two judges decisions don’t extend beyond the two couples in …
Los Angeles Times – CA,USA
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Court: Christian school can expel lesbian students
(Riverside, California) A California appeals court has ruled that a Christian high school can expel students because of an alleged lesbian relationship.
The 4th District Court of Appeal in Riverside on Monday upheld California Lutheran High School’s right as a private, religious organization to exclude students based on sexual orientation.
Two girls …
