[Cross-posted at the Gay Couples Law Blog. Published by Gideon Alper, who also publishes the Atlanta Divorce Law Blog, it discusses same sex family law, estate planning, and taxes.] The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that Louisiana has to recognize the New York same-sex adoption of a Louisiana

The Georgia and Utah governors both proclaimed this week as Marriage Week, citing the benefits that marriage brings society. However, they excluded gay couples from proclamations. For example, the Georgia governor referred to “the relationship between a husband and a wife.” The Utah governor instead talked about the binding of

[Originally posted at the Gay Couples Law Blog] I've compiled a bunch of gay marriage facts and statistics and posted them over at my blog. Thought you all might find them interesting: Support for Gay Marriage Latest statistics: 41% support gay marriage 49% oppose it. 10% say it depends or

News broke earlier this week that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who presided over the Proposition 8 trial, is gay. David Lat over at Above the Law asked whether it matters: It does. It's true that the judge had to be either gay or straight–and bias from either orientation

A friend of mine recalled that President Obama signed a order last year that had something to do with benefits for federal employees, and thought therefore that federal employees get all the benefits that straight married employees do. But that's not the case. The presidential order from last year has

Came across a Schoolhouse Rock-type video about how the Supreme Court banned public broadcast of the Proposition 8 trial on YouTube. It at least has a catchy jingle. Note that while the video says that California is defending Proposition 8, both Governor Schwarzenegger and the attorney general have declined to

Scientific developments in surrogacy are particularly important to lesbian couples because they could lead to changes in legal rights that so often affect them. Case in point: a new development pointed out by California family lawyer Theresa Erickson, written about in a New York Times article on the developing science

Some people ask how it could be constitutional to ban gay marriage when its clearly discriminatory. The answer is that whether a law is constitutional or not doesn't depend on whether or not it discriminates. Instead, it's all about whether the government has a good enough reason for making the

Opponents of gay marriage often say that gay marriage should be disallowed because children do better with opposite sex parents. But a new study says otherwise. Sharon Jayson reported last week in the USA Today about research by University of Southern California sociologists that showed that kids with same sex parents

A lesbian mother that took care of a child was denied parental rights by an Ohio court, but a sperm donor that had almost no contact was given them. Here's what happened: Two women, partners, want a child. Male friend donates sperm. Signs contract giving up rights to child. Woman