Sexual Orientation and the Law Blog

Don't ask, don't tell, don't teach: Air Force Academy punishes instructor for discussion on sexual minorities in the military

From The Palm Center at UC-Santa Barbara:

The Palm Center has learned that a Lieutenant Colonel who taught at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO, was punished and barred from teaching after she invited three Academy alumni to campus to discuss sexual minorities in the military.  The professor, Lt. Col. Edith A. Disler, told Palm Center researchers that the classroom visit was approved by her course director, but Academy officials pulled her from the classroom anyway, launching an investigation that ended in a formal reprimand based on the subject matter discussed.

More details here.

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Is the current gay agenda the right agenda?

Our colleague Ruthann Robson at Con Law Prof has this review of a new article by Libby Adler, The Gay Agenda, 16 Mich. J. Gender & L. 147 (2009), available in draft form on SSRN here,

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October Lesbian/Gay Law Notes is available

The October edition of Professor Art Leonard's indispensable Lesbian/Gay Law Notes is available here.

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How exactly do you "teach gay marriage in the public schools"?

The Bangor Daily News reports on the latest sideshow of irrationality surrounding efforts to repeal marriage equality in Maine.

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Lavender Law sessions available for online CLE

At its 2009 Lavender Law Career Fair and Conference, the National LGBT Bar Association partnered with Celesq to record three general attendance sessions which focused on the Supreme Court, the LGBT agenda and the Obama administration, and battle for relationship recognition at the federal level. You can purchase online and CD recordings of the sessions from Celesq (for CLE credit) by using the following links:

Federal Courts, The Nine Supremes and LGBT Equality
 
Priorities for the LGBT Agenda in a New Administration

Relationship Recognition through a Federal Lens

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Summary judgment denied in federal challenge to Prop 8

Lawdork blogger Chris Geidner reports on the high-profile challenge to Prop 8 being led by Ted Olson and David Boies:

U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker denied the Intervenor-Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal court challenge to Proposition 8.  Judge Walker denied all of the grounds for summary judgment sought by the Intervenor-Defendants, which keeps the challenge on track toward its set January trial date.

Judge Walker ruled that a trial, or at least more evidence, is necessary before he can make a determination about what standard of review to apply when judging whether Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of due process or equal protection based on either sex or sexual orientation claims.

Read the rest of Chris' informative analysis here.

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Will Olson/Boies challenge to Prop 8 get tossed or proceed to trial?

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog and the San Jose Mercury-News report here and here on the latest developments in the high-profile federal challenge to California's Proposition 8. 

Backers of the anti-marriage amendment will argue in court Wednesday that a trial is unnecessary.  Among their arguments, they're hauling out the old chestnut that the 1972 case of Baker v. Nelson, which let stand (for lack of a "substantial federal question") a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling that rejected a legal challenge to a Minnesota law limiting marriage to a union between a man and a woman.

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New Pew data show more Americans support civil unions

A new study from the Pew Forum offers a rich collection of data on attitudes toward same-sex marriage and homosexuality more generally. The highlights:

A clear majority of Americans (57%) favors allowing gay and lesbian couples to enter into legal agreements with each other that would give them many of the same rights as married couples, a status commonly known as civil unions. This finding marks a slight uptick in support for civil unions and appears to continue a significant long-term trend since the question was first asked in Pew Research Center surveys in 2003, when support for civil unions stood at 45%.

Over the past year, support for civil unions has grown significantly among those who oppose same-sex marriage (24% in August 2008 to 30% in 2009) while remaining stable among those who favor same-sex marriage. At the same time, opponents of same-sex marriage continue to outnumber supporters overall. An August 2009 Pew Research Center survey finds that 53% oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, compared with 39% who support same-sex marriage, numbers that are virtually unchanged over the past year.

Supporters of same-sex marriage are divided over the best way to pursue its legalization; 45% favor pushing hard to legalize it as soon as possible, while 42% of same-sex marriage advocates say they should not push too hard to legalize same-sex marriages right away because this might risk creating a backlash against gays and lesbians.

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Nearly half of the public (49%) says homosexual behavior is morally wrong, while 9% say it is morally acceptable and 35% say it is not a moral issue. A similar number says abortion is morally wrong (52%), while far fewer see moral impropriety in divorce (29%) or drinking alcohol (15%).

Blacks are much more likely to think that homosexuality is morally wrong (64%) than whites (48%) or Hispanics (43%). At least half of those ages 30 and older say homosexuality is wrong, compared with fewer than four-in-ten (38%) among those under age 30. And a slim majority of Americans with a high school education or less see homosexual behavior as morally wrong (55%), compared with fewer than half among those with a college degree (40%) or some college education (46%).

The full report is available here.

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Transcript of Obama remarks to gay advocates at HRC dinner

Available here.

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Video of Obama's HRC speech

You can watch the 24-minute speech here. (Although the White House web site is up to date with coverage of Bo's birthday on Friday, I haven't yet been able to locate an official text of the speech.)

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Obama promises against to end DADT, but offers no timetable

New York Times coverage of Obama's speech to the Human Rights Campaign is here.

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