Tag Archives: same-sex marriage

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. …

Traditionally, divorce-court judges determining custody usually rule that any pets in the household will follow the children. But what happens if there are no children? Increasingly, pets themselves are the subject of custodial disputes in divorce proceedings, according to Kenneth P. Altshuler, a Portland, Maine, divorce attorney who is the current president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. In 2006, AAML conducted a survey of its members and found that they had seen a marked increase in pet custody cases …

There is no disputing that the tide of public opinion on same-sex marriage has turned in favor of allowing federal marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples. On the heels of the landmark decision in California and the legislative initiative in Washington State, both Maryland and New Jersey are also paving the way to allow same-sex marriage. “This is further evidence that Americans are changing their minds as they think about why marriage matters and who gay families are,” says …

In a landmark victory for same-sex parents, a judge in New Jersey granted custody of twin girls to their biological father following a trial that spanned more than a year. The fathers, a gay, interracial couple who were married in California and joined in a civil union in New Jersey, had long desired to be parents and created embryos using the eggs of an anonymous donor. The case arose out of a 2005 agreement between Angelia Robinson and her brother, …

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 …