LGBT Bar NY Podcast

Discussion of: (1) all the twists and turns in the Gavin Grimm case as we approach argument at the U.S. Supreme Court later this month; (2) a unanimous Washington Supreme Court decision rejecting a First Amendment defense from a florist who refused to provide flowers for a gay wedding; (3) more bad news from the Arkansas Supreme Court; and (4) why a New York federal court found Grindr probably doe...

Discussion of: (1) President Donald Trump's nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court; (2) a concerning decision to hear a case by the Texas Supreme Court; (3) a federal court letting a transgender woman sue her employer under Title VII after a health plan denied coverage of her transition-related care; and (4) a case arising out of a gay man's tragic fall overboard from a cruise...

Discussion of: (1) a familiar Texas federal district court judge issuing another nationwide injunction against the Obama administration; (2) a disappointing 4-3 decision on birth certificates from the Arkansas Supreme Court; (3) a Louisiana court declaring an executive order of Governor John Bel Edwards unconstitutional; and (4) the sad final chapter in the saga arising out of a public nudity arre...

Discussion of: (1) what the incoming Trump Administration and Republican control of both houses of Congress might mean for the future of LGBT rights; (2) November developments in the continuing push to have Title VII's protections interpreted broadly to include LGBT employees, featuring analysis of an important en banc reargument in the 7th Circuit; (3) a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that a family...

Discussion of: (1) the U.S. Supreme Court granting cert in three cases of interest to the LGBT community, especially the Gavin Grimm case; (2) a constitutional challenge brought by a church to a state antidiscrimination law that covers public accommodations and gender identity; (3) a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision establishing that a lesbian partner without a biological connection t...

Discussion of: (1) Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore getting suspended for the rest of his term; (2) the extension of the new parental standing test in New York to a gay dad; (3) a New Jersey appellate court throwing out the entire conviction of Tyler Clementi's Rutgers roommate; and (4) how a New York federal court judge's granting of a motion to dismiss highlights a larger problem with the NYPD an...

Discussion of: (1) the New York Court of Appeals overruling Alison D.; (2) setbacks in the struggle to get LGBT employees covered under Title VII; (3) all the August developments in the similar battle over whether Title IX covers transgender students using restrooms consistent with their gender identity; and (4) a federal appellate court judge explaining bisexuality to his colleagues in a dissent....

Discussion of: (1) big wins in federal court challenges to Mississippi's H.B. 1523 that have left the entire law blocked; (2) continuing developments in various federal courts on the question of whether Title VII covers employment discrimination based on sexual orientation; (3) good and bad news for LGBT parents in Maryland, Michigan, and Indiana; and (4) a great ruling in a federal class action l...

After reading the names and ages of the victims of the Orlando attack, discussion of: (1) all of the competing legal moves over the last month in reaction to the terrible new laws in North Carolina and Mississippi; (2) some thorny issues involving the retroactivity of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell decision that we have seen several courts wrestling with as of late; and (3) legislative a...

Discussion of: (1) a ruling out of the Fourth Circuit calling into question the bathroom provisions of North Carolina's H.B. 2; (2) another in a series of New York appellate court decisions finding a way around the draconian Alison D. rule for parental standing; (3) an update on a 2014 story about a gay man suing over a public nudity arrest at San Diego Pride in 2011; and (4) an Oklahoma court tha...

Discussion of: (1) a bad week in March for the Alabama Supreme Court, with a final concession on marriage equality and a reversal by the U.S. Supreme Court; (2) horrible anti-LGBT bills signed into law by the governors of North Carolina and Mississippi; (3) a federal court enjoining Mississippi from enforcing its ban on same-sex couples adopting; and (4) a bench slap from the First Circuit against...

Discussion of: (1) the legacy of conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and how a nomination from President Obama to fill his seat may play out; (2) big parental rights wins for gay parents out of Kentucky and New Jersey; (3) a New York federal court grappling with the big question of whether Title VII covers sexual orientation discrimination; and (4) a sloppy Delaware health care...

Discussion of: (1) a retroactive application of Windsor that may save a pension benefit for a lesbian widow; (2) an unanimous decision from the New York Appellate Division rejecting all of the statutory and constitutional defenses raised by the owners of an upstate wedding venue that discriminated against a same-sex couple; (3) panel and en banc rulings from a Texas appeals court denying standing...

Discussion of: (1) the U.S. Supreme Court's stay of a novel Alabama Supreme Court ruling involving the Full Faith and Credit Clause, signaling the strong possibility of a reversal; (2) another positive federal court decision finding that sexual orientation discrimination is covered sex discrimination, this time in the context of Title IX; (3) an additional big antidiscrimination development from a...

Discussion of: (1) decisions from appellate courts in Oklahoma and Michigan extending standing for former partners in lesbian couples to seek custody or visitation of children they previously raised together as part of a couple; (2) an important new precedent from a New York federal court holding that all discrimination against transgender people by the government or any agent of the government is...

Discussion of: (1) the latest developments concerning antidiscrimination law for the LGBT community, including the bad news out of Houston, the good news out of New York, and a stamp of approval for the EEOC's latest interpretation of Title VII from a federal judge; (2) an update on marriage equality in Ireland and Italy; (3) how a New York judge handled the dissolution of a Vermont civil union; a...

Discussion of: (1) how the Alabama Supreme Court manufactured a jurisdictional issue in order to deny recognition to a second-parent adoption granted in Georgia; (2) an interesting implied retroactive application of Obergefell in a tenant succession case here in New York; (3) some terrific news out of the Ninth Circuit for transgender individuals seeking refuge in the United States under the Conve...

Discussion of: (1) the latest on the big "religious liberty" challenges to marriage equality, including the Kim Davis saga in Kentucky and a decision out of Colorado in a case concerning a baker's refusal to make a wedding cake for a gay couple; (2) the raid on the Rentboy.com website and the federal charges brought against its owner and employees; (3) a Maryland intermediate appellate court decis...

Discussion of: (1) the groundbreaking U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruling that employment discrimination based on sexual orientation is necessarily sex discrimination covered by Title VII; (2) how implementation of the Obergefell marriage equality decision has been going; (3) a new legal theory the Second Circuit opened up for a transgender union member claiming discrimination; and...

This special edition of the podcast covers the momentous June 26, 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, striking down all remaining state bans on same-sex marriage.  It includes analysis of Justice Kennedy's majority opinion and all of the dissents, as well as discussion of how the decision has been received in the last remaining holdout states and what is next for the LGBT rig...

Discussion of: (1) the marriage equality referendum in Ireland on May 22 and some other domestic developments on the marriage equality front; (2) several court decisions from the past month that collectively highlight the diverse legal landscape across the country for same-sex couples with children; (3) a new Title VII ruling involving a fired gay pilot; and (4) the denial of habeas relief handed...

Discussion of: (1) the blockbuster oral argument on April 28 at the U.S. Supreme Court in the consolidated marriage equality and recognition cases from the Sixth Circuit, plus some minor updates from Kentucky and several of the federal circuits; (2) the mixed big this past month in several significant discrimination and prisoner rights cases involving transgender plaintiffs; and (3) an interesting...

Discussion of: (1) the legislative developments in Utah, Indiana, and Arkansas that dominated the month of March; (2) all of the marriage equality litigation news from the last few weeks, including a look at who will argue before the U.S. Supreme Court at the end of April; (3) an important ruling from the New Jersey Supreme Court that may imperil a high-profile gay hate crime conviction; and (4) a...

Discussion of: (1) all of the marriage equality litigation news since mid-February, including late-breaking developments out of Alabama and from the U.S. Supreme Court; (2) two important precedents set in the area of HIV criminalization in February; (3) a couple of breakthroughs out of the New Jersey Superior Court in a lawsuit filed to hold a faith-based conversion therapy provider liable under t...

Discussion of: (1) all of the marriage equality litigation news from January through the second week in February, including the announcement of the certiorari grant from the Supreme Court and the latest on the situation in Alabama; (2) an intermediate Michigan appellate court decision rejecting a First Amendment challenge from a former assistant attorney general who posted outrageous and homophobi...