Blog Posts for Massachusetts
About To Make History Again
David Wilson and Rob Compton were plaintiffs in the Goodridge case that ended marriage discrimination against same-sex couples in Massachusetts. In anticipation of the May 6 hearing in GLAD’s DOMA challenge, we asked David to reflect on the experience of watching Mary Bonauto argue in court.
Tax Day and the LGBT Party
There has been much argument about taxes lately. Yesterday, the Tea Party Express brought some of this talk to the Boston Common, just outside my office window.
I believe that paying taxes is a responsibility that comes with being an American citizen. We must share the costs of maintaining and improving our country’s infrastructure and security, and of providing the services that benefit all of us. But I also believe that the tax system must be administered fairly, and without discrimination.
So, as another tax day rolls around, I find myself reflecting on the particular relationship the LGBT community has to paying taxes.
Challenging DOMA - One Year In
A year ago, we stood in a ballroom at the Parker House in Boston, a band of LGBT lawyers, same-sex married couples, and widowers, milling around the microphones, ready to go. We were there to announce our filing of Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, the first serious legal challenge in the country to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
The Day of the O’Donnabhain Decision
At just past 3:30 on the day of the O’Donnabhain decision, Tuesday, February 2nd, we heard yelling coming from the legal wing of GLAD’s office. “We won! We won!” Though everyone had been waiting for this decision for 2 ½ years, the news was at first too general, too random. We won? Who is we? And what was won?
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.
DOMA Damages Same-Sex Families and Their Children
(Excerpted from the ABA Family Advocate)
As Justice Ginsburg famously noted in 1996, the history of our constitution is the history of extending constitutional protections to those who were once ignored or excluded from American society. [United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996)]. That journey to citizenship is well under way for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans as well.
Tis the Budget Season So Let’s Get Busy
HIV service providers, people living with HIV, legislators, and community members filled the Grand Staircase at the State House on Thursday, January 28th to rally support for the funding of critical HIV/AIDS health services and prevention and education programs. The state budget proposed by Governor Patrick on January 27th for the 2011 fiscal year maintained the $35.4 million funding for HIV/AIDS programs, but as State Representatives Carl Sciortino and Gloria Fox (who emplored “Tis the budget season, so let’s get busy!”) State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz reminded us, 2010 is one of the toughest budget seasons our community and the state have faced, and this is no time for complacency.
Imagine a School Culture of Dignity and Respect for All
Yesterday I testified on behalf of GLAD in front of the General Court’s Joint Committee on Education in support of a comprehensive bill to prevent school bullying. The bill before the committee, H. 483, is an excellent starting point and has the potential to ultimately result in a law that would create safer schools for Massachusetts students, including those who are LGBT.
Saving All Our Children: Reflections on the MA Transgender Rights Bill Hearing
“A day without human rights is a day without sunshine.” That is what the t-shirt said that I got at one of the first gay rights rallies I attended in 1977, a rally was organized to try to defend a newly passed sexual orientation non-discrimination law in Dade County, Florida. I was one of the children that Anita Bryant’s Save Our Children campaign was ostensibly trying to protect. But I was also a kid who had an emerging sense that I was not like the other kids both in terms of my gender and my sexual orientation.
Inclusive ENDA: Passage is Essential
The first Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) bill that would create a federal law prohibiting workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was introduced into Congress fifteen years ago. Fifteen years feels like a very long time given the progress that has been made generally on LGBT social issues and understanding during that same time span.