Tag Archives: DOMA

As marriage equality spreads across the nation in fits and starts, LGBT couples are slowly gaining access to the rights and privileges their straight counterparts enjoy, including divorce. But how can spouses get a divorce if they reside in a state that doesn’t recognize their marriage to begin with? Maryland will grant LGBT divorces, but other states without gay marriage won’t Repeal of Defense of Marriage Act wouldn’t resolve recognition problem LGBT spouses living in states that don’t recognize gay …

When President Obama announced his support for gay marriage earlier this month, he was echoing a sentiment that more and more Americans have come to believe– that LGBT citizens have the same right to formalize their love in law as any other couple. More than just a symbolic gesture, marriage can grant partners important social and legal rights they might otherwise be excluded from. LGBT marriage can bring benefits for taxes, insurance, wills and more State laws vary on LGBT …

The knot of contradictory laws governing same-sex marriages in the U.S. may become even more tangled in the months ahead, thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision to wait at least another year before reviewing challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA.) The portion of the law which prohibits the federal government from recognizing gay marriage has been found unconstitutional by federal courts in California and Massachusetts, and challenges are under way in Connecticut, New York, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. …

Sarah Ellyn Farley—or Ellyn as she was known—lay in a hospital bed, coughing up blood, just a few hours from death. The rare form of cancer she had suffered from for more than four years was taking its final toll. Her wife Jennifer Tobits, whom she married in Toronto in February 2006, knew the end was near. But rather than wait by her bedside as Farley succumbed to the disease, she was caught in a bitter feud with Farley’s parents …

Just a little more than a month after the repeal of the military’s controversial Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy went into effect, a group of married same-sex couples are joining together to file suit against the government to demand the same military benefits afforded to their heterosexual counterparts. The plaintiffs total eight couples, each legally married under the laws of their state. Lawyers for the plaintiffs believe the suit has the potential to go all the way to the Supreme …