news & opinion
Press Release
LGBT Organizations Mourn The Loss of Transgender Victims of Violence
10th Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance Recognized Throughout California
11.20.08—Community United Against Violence, Equality California, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the Transgender Law Center mourn the loss of our brothers and sisters on the 10th Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Press Release
California Supreme Court Grants Review in Prop 8 Legal Challenges
Court to determine constitutionality of Prop 8
11.19.08—Today the California Supreme Court granted review in the legal challenges to Proposition 8, which passed by a narrow margin of 52 percent on November 4. In an order issued today, the Court agreed to hear the case and set an expedited briefing schedule. The Court also denied an immediate stay.
read more click here to read the California Supreme Court order (pdf)
Kate's Blog: Out for Justice
Five Stages of Grief in 14 Days
11.18.08—Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. In the past five years, I’ve become more familiar than I would have liked with Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s five stages of grief. In that time, both of my parents and my baby brother died, all too young—and in the case of my 40-year-old brother, completely unexpectedly. I’m not actually sure I’ve ever really made it to acceptance; rather, I seem to be in a permanent state of resignation.
Statement
Letter to the Community
11.14.08—Dear Community,
We are on the cusp of a new era as our country has elected its first African-American president, Barack Obama. We hope this unprecedented event will usher in a new chapter in our nation’s history.
Press Release
Legal Groups File Lawsuit Challenging Proposition 8, Should It Pass
Legal Papers Claim Initiative Procedure Cannot Be Used
To Undermine the Constitution’s Core Commitment To Equality For Everyone
11.05.08—The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a writ petition before the California Supreme Court today urging the court to invalidate Proposition 8 if it passes. The petition charges that Proposition 8 is invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution’s core commitment to equality for everyone by eliminating a fundamental right from just one group—lesbian and gay Californians. Proposition 8 also improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities. According to the California Constitution, such radical changes to the organizing principles of state government cannot be made by simple majority vote through the initiative process, but instead must, at a minimum, go through the state legislature first.
Press Release
NO on Prop 8 Campaign Leaders Call on Community to Stand Together
11.07.08—Top leaders from the NO on Prop 8 campaign today issued the following statement urging leaders in the community to stand together following the passage of Prop 8.
Legal Challenges to Prop 8
Strauss v. Horton
As soon as it was clear that Prop 8 would pass in California, NCLR, along with the ACLU and Lambda Legal, filed a writ petition with the California Supreme Court on behalf of six LGBT individuals and Equality California seeking to invalidate Proposition 8.
The petition argues that the California Supreme Court should strike down Proposition 8 because it makes such a significant change to the core underlying principle of equal protection and is therefore a revision, not a mere amendment of the California Constitution. The principle of equal protection protecting minority groups from oppression by the majority is central to our constitution and our democratic system of government. Proposition 8 would limit that fundamental principle of equal protection for LGBT Californians and undermines the very purpose of equal protection.
read more about Strauss v. Horton
read NCLR’s press release 11.05.08
read the writ petition and brief (pdf)
Other petitioners have also filed writ petitions challenging Proposition 8 as an unconstitutional revision of the California Constitution.
case updates
Victory! (Connecticut)
Kerrigan & Mock v. Connecticut Department of Public Health
The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that the state cannot exclude lesbian and gay couples from marriage. It found that the exclusion impermissibly discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation. The court held that the state’s civil union system for same-sex couples was inherently unequal because civil unions do not provide the same dignity, stature, and respect as marriage.
Denial (California)
Bennett v. Bowen
A number of legal organizations filed a lawsuit in the California Supreme Court to remove Proposition 8 from the November ballot. Proposition 8 was a measure to change the California Constitution to eliminate the right to marry for same-sex couples. The lawsuit argued that the proponents of Proposition 8 did not follow the appropriate rules for revising the California Constitution. The California Supreme Court denied the petition to remove Proposition 8 from the ballot prior to the election.
Pending (Pakistan)
In re S.K.
S.K. is a gay Pakistani man seeking asylum and withholding of removal because he fears persecution based on his sexual orientation and HIV status. Under Pakistani law, being gay is punishable by death and LGBT people are forced to live in secrecy and constant fear of exposure. The Immigration Judge ignored the serious risk of persecution that S.K. faces and denied his application for asylum. The judge held that S.K., who has HIV, and was in a committed relationship with a man in Minnesota, could avoid persecution by hiding his sexual orientation, marrying a woman, and having children. The Immigration Judge also failed to recognize that S.K.’s traumatizing diagnosis of HIV that had progressed to AIDS understandably delayed his filing.
Over the past 30 years the National Center for Lesbian Rights has been at the forefront of nearly every legal gain won for LGBT people and families.
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