Looking back across the decades, there might be good news for LGBT rights once a month or even once a year. Now so much happens in a week that there’s not one issue but several
Virginia: U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen wrote a touching opinion in her ruling that struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. The opinion referred to marriage equality as part of the country’s ongoing expansion of rights to unjustly excluded people like extending woman’s suffrage and abolishing slavery have been. In answer to arguments that marriage equality breaks from tradition, Wright Allen wrote, “Tradition alone cannot justify denying same-sex couples the right to marry any more than it could justify Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage.” More of the opinion here.Â
Texas: Nikki Araguz, a trans widow, will receive survival benefits after her husband’s death as a volunteer firefighter in 2010, according to a decision from the 13th District Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi
Indiana: Voters have to wait another two years before a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality can be put on the ballot.
Facebook: The social network has developed new gender marker options—50 different choices, in fact. Currently, these options are only in the United States, but the company will soon extend them to other markets. The entire list is here.
Kentucky: Same-sex couples who marry in states with legalized marriage equality will also be recognized as married in Kentucky, according to a ruling from U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II. The judge cited Windsor v. United States in its decision, indicating that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage may be in danger.
Kansas: The Kansas Senate decided to not hear the LGBT discrimination bill passed by the state House by a vote of 72 to 49  last Wednesday after the chairman of the state Senate Judiciary Committee, Jeff King, refused to hold hearings on the bill. The Senate’s lack of action was surprising because its 40 members are 80 percent Republican. The bill, which may have been withdrawn because of public protest across the nation, may reappear in another form, but many legislators don’t want to be seen as bigots.
Further, new pending legislation may further LGBT rights in additional ways. Some of this week’s new cases include:
In San Antonio, Texas, a bill was passed this week allowing the city to challenge the state of Texas’s 2005 constitutional amendment that bans same sex marriage due to their view that it runs contrary to the US Constitution.
In Missouri, the ACLU is suing the state on behalf of the LGBT couples in the state to abolish that state’s marriage ban. Missouri voters approved the ban in 2004 with 74 percent voting in favor of it. Democratic governor Jay Nixon had previously endorsed same sex marriage, and issued an executive order in November 2013 that allowed for same sex partners legally married in other states to file joint state tax returns.
In Louisiana, Forum for Equality has banded together with four same sex couples from that state to issue a legal challenge to Louisiana’s ban on same sex marriage.
In Alabama, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a suit challenging that state’s ban on recognizing same sex marriages performed legally in other states. This would invalidate a section of Alabama’s Marriage Protection Act.
