Blog Posts for Maine
DOMA and Taxes: Filing Now and Preserving Your Rights
If DOMA is overturned and you are in the process of appealing a previous tax return, you may be eligible to receive a refund on the extra taxes you paid. The IRS allows you to file amended income tax returns up to three years after the original return was filed. For example, in most cases you can still file an amended return for the 2009 tax year provided the IRS receives it before this April’s filing deadline. Read on for more information from our Legal InfoLine Manager, Bruce Bell.
Know Your Rights: Transgender Rights in New England
We’ve come a good way towards establishing legal protections for transgender people in New England in the past several years. In 2011, both Connecticut and Massachusetts added gender identity to their anti-discrimination laws, joining Rhode Island (2001), Maine (2005) and Vermont (2007) in providing protections in employment, housing and credit, and, in all but Massachusetts, public accommodations (like restaurants, bars, parks, stores, hospitals, shelters, etc.). But there is still work to do.
Know Your Rights: Protections Against Employment Discrimination
One of the great things about living in New England is that all six states offer anti-discrimination protections for LGBT employees and workers who are living with HIV. Most workers are “employees at will” and can be fired or discriminated against by their employer for any reason or no reason at all. However, states have identified “protected characteristics” and made it illegal to fire or discriminate against an employee just because they possess, or are perceived to possess, one or more of those characteristics. For lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) workers, the protected characteristic is “sexual orientation,” for workers living with HIV, “disability,” and for transgender workers, “gender identity.”
When Love Doesn’t Make a Family
This week, GLAD, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and NCLR’s National Family Law Advisory Council released a revised version of Protecting Families: Standards for LGBT Families, a set of 10 guidelines aimed at reminding LGBT people how important it is to legally protect the families they create and to caution parents against wielding anti-LGBT laws against their partner should their relationship break-up. Basically, we’re calling on the members of our community—and their lawyers—to fight fairly and to do their best to avoid damaging custody disputes. As GLAD’s Mary Bonauto writes in her introduction to the standards, “We believe that, even in the midst of the emotional upheaval that inevitably accompanies the end of the adult relationship, families can do a great deal to resolve their differences in a manner that puts their children first.”
Another GSA is Born
I recently received the exciting news that we had helped a high school student and his friends in Maine form a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA). I would have been happy to sue to found a GSA but it was just as satisfying to persuade the school to do the right thing because it was right for the school. Indeed, GLAD does a lot of work behind the scenes.
It’s Tax Time: Good News/Bad News
It’s everyone’s favorite time of year. At least there is some good news for transgender tax payers this year. But still the same bad news for married same sex couples.
Know Your Rights: An Introduction to GLAD’s Legal InfoLine
Legal InfoLine Manager Bruce Bell begins a regular weekly blog post today.
Don’t let fear tactics undermine the Maine Human Rights Act’s vital protections
Ultimately it is the purpose of the Maine Human Rights Act to allow individuals the same opportunity to prove themselves in work and in public life, without barriers imposed by discrimination and prejudice.
2010 Census - It’s Personal and Political
It’s not just Uncle Sam - GLAD wants you to take part in the 2010 census!
This is an historic opportunity to show who we are as families. For the first time, the census will count married same-sex couples, in addition to counting same-sex couples living in the same household.
On the ground in Maine today
Today, Mainers are deciding whether the hard-won marriage equality law passed in May and signed by Governor Baldacci will finally go into effect.
GLAD is committed to this fight, working with our coalition partners on public education efforts throughout the state to ensure all Maine families the security, protection, and respect they deserve.
Several GLAD folks are in Maine today and will posting at twitter.com/gladlaw throughout the day (you can also see the posts at www.glad.org). And check back here for photos from the ground as they come in.