Tag Archives: lgbt marriage

Maine will take another shot at marriage equality this election day as voters consider a ballot question on whether to allow same-sex couples to tie the knot. The state legislature previously passed a law allowing LGBT marriage in 2009, but opponents promptly got the law wiped out through a ballot referendum, or “people’s veto.” Now the people have a chance to change their minds. In a related issue, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by anti-gay groups …

Same-sex couples who live in states that don’t recognize gay marriage or civil unions are out of luck when it comes to estate taxes, facing much higher rates when one partner passes away than do their peers who are legally married. The discriminatory nature of tax laws was illustrated by a recent case in Pennsylvania, where Marie Himmelberger’s longtime partner Sharon Warnock passed away in 2010. Himmelberger and Warnock were in fact legally joined in New Jersey after a 2007 …

  The Defense of Marriage Act has been ruled unconstitutional by two federal courts, but LGBT marriages have yet to receive federal recognition and the rights and protections that come with it. One area in which this impacts same-sex couples is estate planning and inheritance.         Mobile users click here to view the video.         Lawyers.com Supervising Producer John McCarthy interviews attorney Joan Burda, an estate planning expert who focuses on LGBT issues. Burda …

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing in North Carolina to overturn a law banning second-parent adoption, which effectively prevents LGBT partners from adopting their significant others’ children. Adoption laws vary by state, many discriminatory to same-sex couples Ban on second-parent adoption puts children in limbo if parent dies Controversial study on gay parenting questioned   Discrimination by Law The lead plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit, Marcie Fisher-Borne, has been with her partner Chantelle for 15 years. Each birthed one …

Institutionalized discrimination by Uncle Sam against the LGBT community is no more, says a federal court in Boston. The First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 law that specifically denies federal marriage benefits to gay couples regardless of whether they are legally married in their state, is unconstitutional. Opponents of the law, including the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), had argued that the federal government had never before interfered with …