Blog Posts for Vermont
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.”
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: What is ‘heightened scrutiny’ and why is it important?
Courts have found that laws that discriminate against certain groups of people are more likely to reflect prejudice against that group than they are good public policy. Rather than being assumed to be constitutional, such laws need to be justified with exceptionally good reasons. This is called “heightened scrutiny” and has, for example, been used in cases where a racial group is being discriminated against. GLAD has consistently argued in the courts that sexual orientation deserves “heightened scrutiny.” So it was an enormous breakthrough last week when the President and the Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed with GLAD on that point- and because of that also agreed that DOMA is unconstitutional.
Something On Which GLAD & NOM Agree! Courts Have a Role to Play in the Real World
On the heels of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) announcement last week that it would no longer defend DOMA against legal challenges by GLAD and other organizations, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) issued an action alert urging members to immediately call their congressional reps to demand they defend the odious law.
“It’s a constitutional outrage,” NOM President Brian Brown wrote in the alert. “Why do we even have courts if the President himself gets to decide which laws are constitutional?” (Emphasis added).
Know Your Rights: DOJ Decides DOMA Is Unconsitutional, But DOMA Continues To Be Enforced
Given the breaking news that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will no longer defend Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), I wanted to let you know what that really means to the two lawsuits GLAD currently has in the federal courts trying to overturn DOMA—Gill and Pedersen .
Know Your Rights: An Introduction to GLAD’s Legal InfoLine
Legal InfoLine Manager Bruce Bell begins a regular weekly blog post today.
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.
A Vermont Mother’s Heartbreaking Search Continues
My heart goes out to Vermont mother Janet Jenkins, who remains in the dark as to the whereabouts of her daughter Isabella.
Lisa Miller, Isabella’s other mother, disappeared with the child before January 1, the date she was ordered by the Rutland Family Court to transfer custody to Janet.
In Vermont “A Historic Victory” Replaced, Finally, With True Equality
As same-sex couples begin marrying today in Vermont, we are thrilled to retire our very first publication on state-based legal relationship rights for lesbian and gay couples (Vermont Civil Unions: A Historic Victory), replacing it with the latest in our growing series of “How to Get Married” publications. Also, a nod to a powerful and positive response to hate by students at Montepelier High School.