The SJC also explicitly articulated for the first time that sexual orientation is a protected class for purposes of a Batson-Soares objection to peremptory challenges
The U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday upheld a $700,000 jury award for Lori Franchina, a lesbian firefighter who experienced extensive unchecked harassment from her co-workers at the Providence Fire Department.
Last week, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) issued a ruling that’s great news for same-sex couples (and all married couples) seeking to use assisted reproductive technology (ART) as part of their family planning. In Adoption of a Minor (brought by Patience Crozier of Kauffman Crozier LLP and supported by an Amicus brief developed by our friends and partners at GLAD in Boston and signed by Lambda Legal and a broad range of LGBT legal organizations, family law attorneys, and ART groups), the court unanimously clarified that a married same-sex couple are the sole legal parents of children born into their marriage using donated sperm and that they did not need to give notice to the donor before securing their parental rights through adoption.
Nine years ago today, Massachusetts made history by becoming the first state in the nation to allow same-sex couples to marry—a giant leap forward in the movement for LGBT equality.
From the New York Times:
For Colette Hayward and Margaret Selby, the problem is this: Maryland recognizes their 2009 marriage, but the federal government does not.
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Another nail in DOMA's coffin. The First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld today a lower court ruling finding the so-called Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.