By 365gay Newswire 09.30.2009 9:36am EDT (Miami, Fl.)  The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida today rejected Lambda Legal’s lawsuit filed against Jackson Memorial Hospital on behalf of Janice Langbehn, the Estate of Lisa Pond and their three adopted children who were kept apart by hospital staff for eight hours as Lisa slipped into a coma and died. “The court’s decision paints a tragically stark picture...

September 28, 2009, Los Angeles Times In an official proclamation this afternoon, President Obama declared today Family Day 2009. What is significant is the way he defined “family.” The president gave a nod to the gay community when he praised all families, “whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple, or a guardian.” (Emphasis ours.) His shout-out to same-sex couples is sure...

by Nancy Pollikoff - September 11th, 2009 It’s not called Lavender Law anymore, but I can’t help myself. (Sixth Ave will never be Avenue of the Americas to me…). Its official name is the National LGBT Bar Association Career Fair & Conference, but by any name this is the annual gathering of LGBT lawyers, law students, and law profs (and some straight advocates who work on our issues). This year’s conference is taking place...

Leonard Link The U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, has filed its motion to dismiss in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, Case No. 1:09-cv-10309 (JLT) (U.S.Dist.Ct., D. Mass.), the constitutional challenge to Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act filed in federal court in Boston last winter by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD). The brief that DOJ filed on September 18 in support of the motion seems to come...

Sunday, September 20, 2009 Thanks to Nan Hunter for alerting me to the proposed regulations implementing my favorite family leave policy: the one that allows federal government employees to use their sick leave to care for “any individual related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.” I’ve had numerous posts on this topic. I love the current policy because it allows...

By The Associated Press 09.14.2009 11:39am EDT (Kiev, Ukraine) Elton John will not be able to adopt a 14-month-old Ukrainian child because the pop star is too old and isn’t traditionally married, Ukraine’s minister for family affairs said Monday. The pop signer toured a hospital for HIV-infected children in eastern Ukraine on Saturday as part of a charity project and said that he and his male partner David Furnish wanted to adopt an HIV-infected...

September 10, 2009, New York Times By REUTERS MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (Reuters) — Lawmakers voted Wednesday to extend adoption rights to gay couples in Uruguay, the latest measure to relax laws on homosexuality that has drawn criticism from church leaders in the country, which is predominantly Roman Catholic. Members of Congress said the law made Uruguay the first Latin American country to permit gay couples to adopt. The measure, which will now go...

Arthur Leonard Lesbian/Gay Lawnotes - 9.09 The Court of Appeals of Texas in Dallas issued a ruling Aug. 11 affirming a decision by a trial court in Dallas County rejecting an attempt by a lesbian co-parent to be appointed conservator or to adopt the child born to her former partner through donor insemination. In the Interest of M.K.S.-V., A Child, 2009 WL 2437076. The court rejected the plaintiff’s claim that her extensive visitation with the child...

Arthur Leonard Lesbian/Gay LawNotes 9.09 A lesbian who had separated from her partner challenged the constitutionality of two Oregon statutes: one that creates a presumption that a husband is the father of a child born to his wife, so long as the spouses are not separated; and another that gives a husband parental rights over a child born as a result of his wife’s artificial insemination, so long at the husband consented to the insemination. An...

By Jason Lawrence Staff Editor - The Famuan Published: Thursday, September 3, 2009 Updated: Thursday, September 3, 2009 Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual rights have been swept under the rug by lawmakers since the infamous Gay Rights Movement began in the summer of 1969.  Now, here we are 40 years later and not much has changed, especially in Florida. Not much attention has been paid to those who identify as same gender loving. A 1997 Legislative...