A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of Texas in San Antonio issued a new opinion on January 27, reaffirming a prior ruling issued on August 12 of last year, that a transgender man who had been parenting children adopted by his long-time former female partner lacked standing to seek custody and visitation rights because he didn’t assert such a claim shortly after the couple broke up. At the same time, the full bench … <Read More>
Judge William P. Johnson of the U.S. District Court in New Mexico ruled on January 7 that a man living with HIV who is using medical marijuana under New Mexico’s Compassionate Use Statute could not contest his discharge under his employer’s drug use policy, finding that the employer was not required to accommodate the man’s disability by waiving its requirement that its employees refrain from using marijuana. Garcia v. Tractor Supply Company, 2016 WL … <Read More>
A unanimous five-judge bench of the New York Appellate Division, 3rd Department, an intermediate appellate court that hears appeals from state agency rulings in Albany, upheld a decision by the State Division of Human Rights (SDHR) that Liberty Ridge Farm LLC, an upstate business corporation that rents facilities for wedding ceremonies and other life-cycle events, violated the state’s Human Rights Law (HLR) in 2012 when the business turned away a lesbian couple looking for … <Read More>
U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton ruled on January 4 in Schuett v. FedEx Corporation, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 244, 2015 WL 39890 (N.D. Cal.), that the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in U.S. v. Windsor, striking down Section 3, a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), could be applied retroactively to allow Stacey Schuett, a lesbian widow, to sue her late spouse’s employer for a survivor annuity. Although the judge rejected a … <Read More>
Retired Chief Judge Judith Kaye of the New York Court of Appeals died on January 7, 2016, at age 77. Most accounts of her passing mentioned her dissenting opinion in the case of Hernandez v. Robles, 7 N.Y.3d 338 (2006), the case in which the state’s highest court voted against the claim that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, as one of her most notable opinions, but this was merely the capstone of … <Read More>
U.S. District Judge Kevin H. Sharp presented an early Christmas present to Rebecca Young, a student at Richland High School in Giles County, Tennessee, awarding her a preliminary injunction against school authorities who had forbidden her from wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “Some People are Gay, Get Over It.” Young v. Giles County Board of Education, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 170695, 2015 WL 9413877 (M.D. Tennessee, Dec. 22, 2015).
Young showed up for … <Read More>
Lambda Legal’s federal lawsuit seeking to compel Wisconsin officials to issue appropriate birth certificates for children of married same-sex couples hit a speed bump on December 16 when U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb denied Lambda’s motion for class certification and summary judgment in Torres v. Rhoades, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 169965, 2015 WL 9304584 (W.D. Wis.). Lambda sued on behalf of plaintiffs Chelsea Torres and Jessamy Torres and their minor child, A.T. A.T. … <Read More>
The California 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld a determination by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Luis Lavin that the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Commission on Professional Competence erred when it found a gay elementary school teacher who had been arrested in a park sting was “unfit to teach” and authorized termination of his employment. Rodriguez v. Commission on Professional Competence, 2015 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 9062, 2015 WL 8767581 (Dec. … <Read More>
Kelvin J. Cochran, who was discharged as Chief of the Atlanta, Georgia, Fire and Rescue Department (AFRD) after he self-published a book asserting negative views about homosexuality and same-sex marriage based on his religious beliefs, has struck back at the City and Mayor Kasim Reed with a lawsuit claiming a violation of his constitutional rights. On December 16, U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May issued a ruling dismissing some of Cochran’s claims, but allowing others … <Read More>
This afternoon Peoples’ Symphony Concerts presented a brilliant chamber music program at Town Hall in Manhattan. Lise de la Salle, a marvelous young pianist, collaborated with string players from The Knights, a flexible chamber ensemble, to present a very “multicultural” program of music by Martinu, Mozart, Jedd Greenstein, Takemitsu, and Ravel.
Everything was impressively played, but what stays with me the most is the awesome Ravel Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello, performed with great … <Read More>