U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani denied a school district’s motion to dismiss Title IX and Equal Protection claims by a transgender elementary school student in A.H. v. Minersville Area School District, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 193622, 2017 WL 5632662 (M.D. Pa., Nov. 22, 2017). The court rejected the school district’s argument that in light of the Trump Administration’s “withdrawal” of a Guidance issued by the Obama Administration on protection for transgender students under … <Read More>
A Second US District Judge Blocks Trump’s Ban on Transgender Military Service
A second federal district judge has issued a preliminary injunction against implementation of President Donald Trump’s August 25 Memorandum implementing his July 26 tweet announcing a ban on all military service by transgender individuals. Stone v. Trump, Civil Action No. MJG-17-2459 (D. Md.). The November 21 action by District Judge Marvin J. Garbis of the District of Maryland came just three weeks after a federal district judge in the District of Columbia, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, … <Read More>
New York Judge Waives Residency Requirement for Divorcing Polish Gay Couple
New York’s Domestic Relations Law, Section 230, sets residency requirements for married couples seeking to divorce in the state, which vary in length – one or two years — depending upon whether they were married in New York and have lived in the state continuously. This creates a problem for out-of-state same-sex couples who come to New York to marry and then return to a home jurisdiction that does not recognize same-sex marriages. The problem … <Read More>
Ohio Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects Constitutional Challenge to HIV Disclosure Law
The seven-member Ohio Supreme Court unanimously rejected a free speech and equal protection challenge to the state’s law making it a felony assault for a person who knows he is HIV-positive to engage in “sexual conduct” with another person without disclosing his HIV-positive status to this sexual partner. State of Ohio v. Batista, 2017-Ohio-8304, 2017 WL 4838768, 2017 Ohio LEXIS 2172 (Oct. 26, 2017). The court divided 4-3, however, on the appropriate legal analysis leading … <Read More>
Federal Judge Blocks Implementation of Trump’s Transgender Military Ban
In a blunt rebuke to President Donald Trump, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, discerning no factual basis for Trump’s July 26 tweet decreeing a ban on military service by transgender people or the August 25 Memorandum fleshing out the decreed policy, issued a preliminary injunction on October 30, the effect of which is “to revert to the status quo with regard to accession and retention that existed before the issuance of the Presidential Memorandum – … <Read More>
Gay Man Wins New Trial of His Claims Against Key West Police
A unanimous three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on October 5 that Raymond Berthiaume is entitled to a new trial of his claims against the City of Key West and Police Officer David Smith stemming from Berthiaume’s arrest by Smith early on October 27, 2013. A jury ruled against Berthiaume at the first trial, after the judge had refused Berthiaume’s request that potential jurors be questioned about any anti-gay bias. … <Read More>
Another LGBT Case SCOTUS-Bound? Lambda Will Petition for Judicial Review of Ruling on Standing to Challenge Mississippi Statute
Mississippi enacted H.B. 1523 in 2016. The measure enshrines in state statutes a special privilege to discriminate for people whose religious or moral convictions oppose same-sex marriage and sexual relations outside of opposite-sex marriages, and who reject the idea that a person could have a gender identity different from their “biological sex” as identified through external observation of genitals at birth. As part of that special privilege, such individuals are immunized from any “discriminatory” … <Read More>
11th Circuit Rejects Tax Deductibility of Surrogacy Expenses
A gay male couple that wants to have a child who is genetically related to one of the men needs to retain the services of at least one and possibly two women, depending whether they are going to use ordinary surrogacy or gestational surrogacy to have the child. Should those expenses be deductible if they exceed the threshold set by the Internal Revenue Code for deductible medical expenses? On September 25, the 11th Circuit … <Read More>
N.Y. Appellate Division Upholds Vacating Adoption by Father’s New Boyfriend on Petition by Father’s Husband
On September 28, 2017, a unanimous five-judge panel of the N.Y. Appellate Division, First Department, held that New York County Family Court Judge Stewart H. Weinstein had properly granted a motion by Han Ming T., the husband of Marco D., to vacate a May 2016 order that had granted an adoption petition by Carlos A., Marco’s boyfriend, to adopt a child conceived through gestational surrogacy using Marco’s sperm at a time when Marco and Han … <Read More>
N.Y. Family Court Judge Uses Equitable Estoppel to Find Co-Parent Standing in the Absence of Pre-Conception Agreement
Filling a gap in New York family law left open by the New York Court of Appeals’ 2016 decision In the Matter of Brooke S.B., 28 N.Y.3d 1, 61 N.E.3d 48839 N.Y.S.3d 89, Nassau County Family Court Judge Thomas Rademaker held in J.C. v. N.P., a decision published by the New York Law Journal on September 27, 2017, that the doctrine of equitable estoppel could be used to establish the standing of a lesbian co-parent … <Read More>