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.
See Court: Fla. must recognize states’ gay adoptions
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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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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/verdicts-uphe…
Appeals court: No parental rights for lesbian mom
(New York City) A New York State appeals court has ruled that the former partner of a New York City woman has no legal parental rights to a child she helped rear.
The case involved two women, Debra H. and Janice R., who had a civil union in Vermont and then …
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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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/transgender-w…
Appeals court upholds NYS partner ruling
(Albany New York) A mid-level New York State appeals court has upheld a policy granting benefits to the same-sex married partners of state workers.
The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal practice, argued that then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer acted illegally when he directed the Department of Civil Service in 2007 to …
Appeals court upholds NOLA partner registry
(New Orleans, Louisiana) A state appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that the city of New Orleans was within its authority when it granted health benefits to domestic partners of city employees and established a domestic partner registry for city residents.
The decision by the Court of Appeal for …
Appeals court upholds NYS partner ruling
(Albany New York) A mid-level New York State appeals court has upheld a policy granting benefits to the same-sex married partners of state workers.
The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal practice, argued that then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer acted illegally when he directed the Department of Civil Service in 2007 to …
Appeals court upholds NOLA partner registry
(New Orleans, Louisiana) A state appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that the city of New Orleans was within its authority when it granted health benefits to domestic partners of city employees and established a domestic partner registry for city residents.
The decision by the Court of Appeal for …
