LGBT rights

The Honolulu Star Advertiser reports on a state legislator who argues a 1998 state constitutional amendment did not only allow legislators to decide whether to authorize or ban same-sex marriage--but altogether prevented elected representatives to expand marriage to same-sex couples. "State Rep. Bob McDermott has filed a new motion in state Circuit Court looking to invalidate the state's new law legalizing such marriages," the newspaper reported. However, the judge held that the 1998 amendment "did not restrict the Legislature's separate authority -- under Article III, Section 1 of the state Constitution -- to enact laws that define marriage," the newspaper further reported.

The Associated Press reports on a new lawsuit in Texas federal court challenging that state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. They want a court-ordered injunction against the enforcement of state law. The plaintiffs argue that the ban on same-sex marriage cannot even survive the lowest level of constitutional scrutiny: whether the government has a rational basis for the ban.

The Roanoke Times has this profile on Timothy Bostic and Tony London, who are suing to challenge Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage. They told the newspaper they decided to challenge the ban because they want to get married in the state in which they live: "When other states began changing their marriage laws, London and Bostic briefly considered getting married out of state. 'We did discuss it, but why would we go to Iowa to get married and come home and not be married?' Bostic said," The Roanoke Times further reported.

Their lawyers attorneys Theodore Olson and David Boies, who successfully litigated California’s Proposition 8 case.

In 2009, the Montana Supreme Court rejected a civil liberties lawsuit seeking full marital rights for same-sex couples as too broad and without enough specificity on discrimination laws, the Billings Gazette reports. Now the ACLU has filed a lawsuit which "cites specific statutes that prevent gay couples from receiving equal rights and protections medically, financially and over crucial end-of-life decisions," the Billings Gazette also reports.

The West Virginia Attorney General is seeking to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging West Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage in order to defend the constitutionality of the state law, The Herald-Dispatch of Huntington, West Virginia, reports. The plaintiffs allege that their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process are being violated by the ban.

Illinois has become the 16th state in the country--and the largest state in America's heartland-- to authorize same-sex matrimoney, according to the Associated Press. Governor Pat Quinn signed the legislation on a desk once used by President Abraham Lincoln and at a ceremony attended by an estimated 2,300, the AP reported. The law goes into effect June 1.

Click on over to Page 29 of b, a publication of the Baltimore Sun, on how the next frontier for LGBT rights in Maryland (after establishing same-sex marriage) is the fight for trans rights. b reports: "Maryland, like 34 other states, lacks laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity--laws that would protect transgender people ... and others who transgress traditional notions of male and female."

One positive development: the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that transgender people were protected from job discrimination by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, b also reports.

BuzzFeed has a profile of Mary Bonauto, a lawyer without whom marriage equality might never have happened.

Here's why, according to BuzzFeed: "The lawyer brought marriage equality cases in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. She argued the case to the justices in Massachusetts who brought marriage equality to the United States. She won the first decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act’s federal definition of marriage, and the first appellate decision too — a ruling that forced the issue before the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year. If there’s been a big moment in marriage equality’s long march to reality, Bonauto was probably there.And it’s no secret either: The movement’s other leading lawyers openly credit Bonauto for making the success possible."

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has ordered the state to recognize joint tax returns from same-sex couples who married in other states, according to the Associated Press. Missouri's tax code is tied to federal tax code, which now requires same-sex couples to file taxes together. 

"PROMO, a statewide organization that advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality, said Missouri is the lone state to let same-sex couples file jointly as married while not recognizing same-sex marriages," the AP reports.

Hawaii became the 15th state to authorize same-sex marriage with Governor Neil Abercrombie's signature on the legislation, the Los Angeles Times reports. When the bill was in the House, "deliberations lasted for several days and included a committee hearing in which 5,000 people signed up to testify for more than 50 hours, followed by hours of debate on the House floor on nearly 30 proposed amendments."

A court challenge to the same-sex marriage law is already pending. The argument is that legislatively authorizing same-sex nuptials violates a Hawaii constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage. However, Hawaii's attorney general concluded the constitutional amendment authorized legislators to ban same-sex matrimony, but that's a step they didn't take, The LA Times also reported.