Legal & Financial Articles

The Associated Press announced that New York Gov. David Paterson has told state agencies to start recognizing gay marriages performed where the unions are legal.

Paterson spokeswoman Erin Duggan says the governor's legal counsel sent a memo to all the state's agencies telling them they could be violating state human rights law if they don't start recognizing the marriages.

The move is one of the strongest steps the state can take short of action by the Legislature.

BaltimoreSun.com reports that Maryland's highest court has ruled in favor of an adoptive mother who seeks to deny her former partner visitation rights to a child that both had cared for during their relationship.

Janice M. adopted a child from India during her 18-year relationship with Margaret K. After the women ended the relationship, Margaret petitioned the court for custody and won.

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi will take advantage of the benefits provided by marriage in California:

Ellen announced their engagement during a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday, telling the studio audience the news that the California Supreme Court had struck down state laws against gay marriage. The show airs Friday.

"So I would like to say now, for the first time, I am announcing: I am getting married," she said.

The California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday, May 28, 2008 in the case of an Oceanside lesbian whose doctors at North Coast Women's Care Medical Group denied her fertility treatments based on their religious beliefs.

The Washington Blade reports on the results of a recent poll conducted by City University of New York’s Hunter College. The poll asked if the U.S. Constitution bans same-sex marriage, whether gays can serve openly in the U.S. military, whether same-sex marriages were legal in the respondent’s state, and if there’s a federal law barring the firing of workers based on their sexual orientation.

Only 38 percent of poll respondents answered all four questions correctly.

“We will push on until we bring full marriage equality to New York state.” - New York Gov. David A. Paterson

NY Gov. David Paterson recently addressed the guests of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's [NGLTF] 2008 New York Leadership Awards dinner.

Although lesbian and gay citizens of New York cannot marry, those who marry elsewhere in the world will be supported by the state.

According to The New York Times:

"...the appellate court in Rochester held that a gay couple’s 2004 marriage in Canada must be respected under the state’s longstanding marriage recognition rule..."

In April 2005, David Parker, then a father of a kindergarten student, angrily met with school officials at a Massachusetts elementary school. His child had described to him a classroom lesson in which the teacher read from a book about different types of families - including those with homosexual parents.

The Associated Press is reporting that a federal appeals court today upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Parker against school officials.

Cynthia Wade's moving 38-minute documentary film - Freeheld - chronicling New Jersey Police Lieutenant Laurel Hester's landmark legal battle to transfer her pension to her domestic partner has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Short Subject category.

The film was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and picked up eleven additional awards at film festivals in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle and Denver.

Two courts in Iowa have different views of adoption legislation in the state. The Supreme Court has sided with fair-minded citizens.

The AP is reporting on a story involving a female couple raising two children. One mom is biological, and one adoptive. They have separated, and the adoptive mom has asked the courts to determine custody and support for the kids.