The Fourth Circuit Court has refused to stay its decision striking Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage Wednesday, which means LGBT couples might be able to marry as soon as next week. The Washington Post reported that opponents of the law said they will ask the Supreme Court to stay the decision before marriages could start Aug….
WASHINGTON – Last week saw historic movement forward on the issue of marriage equality in America. Over the last seven days, a state circuit judge in Arkansas struck down that state’s ban on same-sex marriages, prompting hundreds of couples across the Natural State to wed; a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for…
WASHINGTON, DC, — The American Sociological Association (ASA) filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit today supporting the fight to overturn Virginia’s gay marriage ban and continuing its now 14-month effort to highlight the overwhelming body of social science research that confirms “children fare just as well” when…
In an announcement, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has said that his office will join the growing consensus of opinion in arguing that the state ban on marriage for lesbian and gay couples should be overturned. There are two cases in federal court challenging the Commonwealth’s marriage amendment and Herring is urging the courts to rule…
WASHINGTON – Signaling a new day for LGBT equality in Virginia, Democrat Gov-elect Terry McAuliffe said in his first press conference that his first executive order will be to ban discrimination against LGBT state employees. Last night McAuliffe defeated vehemently anti-LGBT Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in the Virginia governor’s race. Former governors Mark Warner…
With the news that pro-equality Democrat Terry McAuliffe defeated vehemently anti-LGBT Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in the Virginia governor’s race, Americans got yet another indication that anti-LGBT politics are in full retreat in 2013. Cuccinelli, who had been one of the most vocally anti-LGBT elected officials in the country and who was once widely…
WASHINGTON — The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the sole sponsor of the landmark federal constitutional challenge that eliminated California’s Proposition 8, today announced that it has joined the federal constitutional challenge to Virginia’s ban on marriage equality, Bostic v. Rainey. The Bostic case contends that the Virginia Marriage Amendment and otherVirginia laws that prohibit gay and lesbian couples from marrying are…
HARRISONBURG, Va. – Today Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia are filing a federal class action lawsuit seeking the freedom to marry for all same-sex couples in Virginia as well as an end to Virginia’s refusal to recognize marriages same-sex couples have legally entered elsewhere….
(CNN) — E.W. Jackson, Virginia’s new Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, said he has nothing to apologize for regarding his startling past comments about abortion, race and homosexuality. “I say the things that I say because I’m a Christian, not because I hate anybody, but because I have religious values that matter to me,” Jackson…
Today, gay and lesbian couples gathered in five communities across Virginia to Witness for Marriage. In Arlington, Charlottesville, Hampton, Richmond and Winchester, these couples were joined by affirming faith leaders and applied for marriage licenses. Marriage between gay and lesbian couples is currently not legal in Virginia and relationships are not recognized because of the…
