Gender & Sexuality Law Blog

The New York Court of Appeals ruled today that the Westchester County Executive and the New York State Department of Civil Service were within their legal powers when they issued orders requiring relevant public officials to
recognize same sex marriages lawfully entered into outside the State of New York in the same manner as they currently [...]

The New York Court of Appeals is currently weighing issues of critical importance to families around the state of New York in the matter of Debra H. v. Janice R. The petitioner in the case, Debra H., seeks to prevent the possibility that she may never again see the child she parented since birth.  Respondent, [...]

The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico is currently considering whether Puerto Rico’s laws permit the adoption of a child by a non-biological parent who is the same-sex partner of the child’s legally recognized parent.  Such adoptions are typically referred to as “second-parent” adoptions because they occur in situations where the child already has a legally [...]

Unless you were living in a cave you should be aware that a week ago Tuesday the people of Maine decided to pass on marriage rights for same-sex couples.  Commentators described it as not only “a harsh blow to the gay marriage drive,” but “a major set back to gay rights,” and “a tremendous and [...]

After a number of speeches in support of a measure honoring military veterans (tomorrow is Veterans’ Day) the New York State Senate suspended public deliberations – or “stands at ease,” in the official language of the body – not taking up either Governor Patterson’s deficit reduction plan (NYS has a $3 billion shortfall in its [...]

Follow below a live stream of today’s special session of the New York Senate, during which a vote on marriage equality is expected to take place.  The session begins at noon, but we don’t yet know when the vote may occur.

This has been a huge week for legislative action on a range of sexual rights – both at the local and national level (marriage equality measures passing in Washington State and Kalamazoo, Michigan, and going down in Maine; strict abortion funding restrictions going into the health care reform bill in DC while the bill included [...]

Letizia Palumbo is a visiting scholar at Columbia Law School, and a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Palermo, Department of Politics, Law and Society.  This fall at Columbia she is researching the limits of current feminist interpretations of sex-trafficking developed around the “victim” versus “agency” dichotomy.  These are her thoughts about two recent cases [...]

Maine voters will see on their ballots next Tuesday a proposition to repeal legislation that would have allowed same-sex couples to marry.  The language on the ballot is:
Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?
The Research 2000/Daily Kos [...]

A day doesn’t go by that we don’t hear about a man in the public eye being found to have had sex with female subordinates at work.  Today’s offender is 46 year-old Steve Phillips, ESPN baseball analyst (love that term, instead of “on-air baseball commentator who was accused of sexually harassing a female employee when [...]