News & Commentary

LOS ANGELES - As hundreds of same-sex couples in Massachusetts become the first in the country to obtain marriage licenses pursuant to a ruling by a state supreme court, lesbian and gay couples in California fervently hope that the legislature and courts will move quickly to end marriage discrimination in California as well.

Yesterday afternoon, the California Supreme Court issued an order temporarily directing San Francisco to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in San Francisco. The Court said it would hear a case in May or June on whether Mayor Gavin Newsom and the City of San Francisco had the authority to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

LOS ANGELES - This morning, the ACLU of Southern California, together with the ACLU of Northern California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit arguing that denying same-sex couples the right to marry violates the California Constitution's guarantees of equality, liberty, and privacy.

WASHINGTON - With the Senate Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee set to hear testimony on the state of marriage laws, the American Civil Liberties Union today said that the hearing served as a guise to push a constitutional amendment that, besides limiting marriage to a man and a woman, could forever deny protections to same-sex couples.

ACLU and Statewide Coalition Announce Largest Ever Study of Anti-Gay Harassment in Schools, Showing Strong Need and Proven Solutions

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LOS ANGELES - The ACLU of Southern California applauds the California Supreme Court's decision affirming the validity of second-parent adoption, a process that allows unmarried couples, including lesbian and gay couples, to establish a legal relationship with the couples' children. The ACLU and other civil rights submitted amicus briefs in the case, which was decided in an opinion announced today.

LOS ANGELES - In an historic decision with wide ranging implications, the U.S. Supreme Court today struck down a Texas law that makes some kinds of sexual intimacy a crime, but only for gay people. The decision overrules the court's 1986 decision in Bowers v. Hardwick, which was widely condemned for treating gay people as second-class citizens. It was hailed by the American Civil Liberties Union as a major milestone in the fight for constitutional rights.

LOS ANGELES - A Novato parent's group and a Los Angeles-based children's theater company filed a motion today in federal court to intervene as defendants in the case Citizens for Parental Rights v. Novato Unified School District. The ACLU of Southern California, ACLU of Northern California, and National Center for Lesbian Rights and the National ACLU Lesbian & Gay Rights Project are representing a local coalition of parents, students and organizations concerned with equality, United for Safe Schools Novato; and the educational theater company, Fringe Benefits.