Trend Results : Scottie Thomaston
Blog Post Results (1-20 of 535)
FILTER RESULTS ►Equality news round-up: France’s constitutional court approves marriage equality law, and more
By Scottie Thomaston - France’s constitutional court has approved the marriage equality bill today. After it was passed by the assembly, the opposition party challenged the bill, before the bill is signed into law. Now that the court has approved the bill it is expected to be signed quickly. - A former Obama administration official, [...]
Former Justice John Paul Stevens, Professor Laurence Tribe give their Prop 8 and DOMA predictions
By Scottie Thomaston As the end of the Supreme Court term and the release of its final opinions gets closer, more legal experts are weighing in with predictions and thoughts on which outcome in the marriage cases seems the most likely. As EqualityOnTrial has reported, there are lots of complicated options with different outcomes (ranging [...]
Majority of Virginians and Arizonans support marriage equality
By Scottie Thomaston The people of the state of Virginia are now joining the ranks of those who support marriage equality (most recently, majority support was found in Michigan, and in Nevada in February.) The recent polls seem to match the overall trend reported by Pew Research and Gallup: Americans in all age groups increasingly [...]
Nevada’s state Assembly taking action on pro-LGBT bills
By Scottie Thomaston The state of Nevada is moving forward on pro-LGBT legislation. This week the state Assembly added gender identity and expression to its existing hate crimes legislation. The state’s Republican governor Brian Sandoval is expected to sign the bill: Similar legislation passed in the state assembly during the last legislative session in 2011, [...]
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton signs marriage equality bill into law
By Scottie Thomaston Minnesota’s Governor Mark Dayton signed the marriage equality bill late this afternoon; The bill passed the Senate yesterday, 37-30, and it passed the state House last week, 75-59. BREAKING: Governor Dayton has just signed the freedom to marry into law. #time4marriage #mnmarriage — Minnesotans United (@MN4allfamilies) May 14, 2013 Daily Kos has [...]
Experts weigh in on Prop 8 at the Supreme Court
By Scottie Thomaston Greg Stohr, writing in Bloomberg News, takes a look at the looming decision in Hollingsworth v. Perry, the Prop 8 case. The Justices are widely expected to issue the decision in late June, possibly in the last days of the Term. The piece examines the issue of the Prop 8 proponents’ legal [...]
Equality news round-up: Today’s Minnesota vote, ENDA update, and more
By Scottie Thomaston - Minnesota’s state senate is expected to pass the marriage equality bill when it takes up the bill today. - A story profiling the undecided GOP votes in Minnesota. - Some conservative MPs in the UK are pushing a referendum on marriage equality in order to water down the current legislation. - [...]
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn calls on state House to pass marriage equality bill
By Scottie Thomaston Yesterday afternoon, following the lopsided vote in Minnesota’s House of Representatives to pass a marriage equality bill (by a margin of 75-59), Illinois Governor Pat Quinn issued a statement calling on the Illinois House of Representatives to send the state senate-passed marriage equality bill to him for his signature, the Chicago Tribune [...]
BREAKING: Minnesota House of Representatives passes marriage equality bill
By Scottie Thomaston The Minnesota House convened today to debate on the marriage equality bill, H.F. 1054, and the House has just voted to pass the bill 75-59. As we reported earlier this morning, the state senate will convene on Monday at 11AM, and will vote soon after that on the marriage bill. State senate [...]
Equality news round-up: Updates in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, and more
By Scottie Thomaston - Lawmakers in Minnesota who are supporting the marriage equality bill are considering a last-minute change to the bill, the addition of the word “civil” in front of “marriage”, in hopes of gaining the votes of legislators who might otherwise argue that religious institutions would be forced to perform same-sex marriages. - [...]
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has filed two pro-LGBT amendments to immigration bill
By Scottie Thomaston In the Senate yesterday, The Judiciary Committee’s chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said he plans to introduce two amendments to the comprehensive immigration reform bill that Congress has spent months working on. In a statement, he said the amendments have been filed. The first amendment to the reform bill had been expected: [...]
Bill to end discrimination against adoptive parents based on LGBT and marital status to be introduced in Congress
By Scottie Thomaston Today, a bipartisan group of Senators and Congresspeople are introducing a bill to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and marital status in adoption and foster care. The effort to pass the “Every Child Deserves a Family” Act will be led by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), [...]
Iowa Supreme Court: state must recognize lesbian parents on child’s birth certificate
By Scottie Thomaston The Iowa Supreme Court ruled last week in a unanimous decision that the Iowa Department of Public Health must list both lesbian parents of a child on the child’s birth certificate. Lambda Legal filed the suit in 2010, representing Heather and Melissa Gartner, a married couple raising a child named Mackenzie. The [...]
Equality news round-up: ENDA, UAFA developments, and more
By Scottie Thomaston - The Washington Blade looks at the latest developments in Congress’ work on comprehensive immigration reform and the attempts to include LGBT protections. - Dean Erwin Chemerinsky analyzes the oral argument transcripts in the marriage cases. - In Belize, a gay rights activist is going to court to challenge colonial-era laws banning [...]
Early polling in Oregon shows plurality of voters voters support same-sex marriage ahead of planned 2014 ballot initiative
By Scottie Thomaston Voters in Oregon favor marriage equality, though the number is still below 50 percent. 49 percent are supportive, with 42 percent in opposition. Oregon’s constitution was amended in 2004 to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples only, and there will be an effort in 2014 to repeal that amendment and replace it with [...]
Report: Congress won’t introduce DOMA repeal until after the Supreme Court issues ruling in Windsor
By Scottie Thomaston The Supreme Court could strike down Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act next month: the Court’s decision is expected in the final weeks of June, right before the Justices leave for their summer recess. If the Court decides to uphold Section 3 of DOMA, Congress could still take action [...]
BREAKING: Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee passes marriage equality bill
By Scottie Thomaston The Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee has just passed the marriage equality bill again – this was an amended version that had earlier passed the state senate. The bill will now go to the House floor for final approval, on Thursday. No surprises are expected and it had passed the House the [...]
Texas AG Greg Abbott issues opinion suggesting that the state constitution bars domestic partnership benefits
By Scottie Thomaston The state attorney general in Texas, Greg Abbott, has issued an opinion stating that local governments are violating Texas’ constitution by offering domestic partnership benefits to same-sex couples. Texas voters passed an initiative to ban same-sex marriage in 2005, adding an anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution. Both before and after [...]
New York legislators introduce LGBT “conversion therapy” ban
By Scottie Thomaston Legislators in New York have introduced a bill this week to ban so-called “conversion therapy” for LGBT people. California and New Jersey have also taken up the issue in recent months. Conversion therapy is widely discredited and considered to be ineffective. In fact, a noted psychiatrist who undertook a controversial study purporting [...]
Federal Election Commission decision holds that it can’t recognize same-sex marriages under DOMA
By Scottie Thomaston Yesterday, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued an opinion ruling on an aspect of election law that relies on Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act to determine whether a married couple can contribute to political campaigns jointly. The FEC generally allows married couples to donate jointly to campaigns, so [...]
- Kanye West
- Saturday Night Live
- New Slaves
- Ben Affleck
- Black Skinhead
- Star Trek Into Darkness
- J.J. Abrams
- The Legend Continues
- Cannes Film Festival
- Inside Llewyn Davis
- President Obama
- White House
- North Korea
- Google Glass
- Eurovision Song Contest
- Greenwich Village
- Inside Llewyn Davis
- Anchorman
- Preakness Stakes
- David Beckham
- Miley Cyrus
