Shortly after midnight, Mary Elizabeth Moore, dean of the BU School of Theology, addressed, "with a heavy heart," the vote by a national conference of the United Methodist Church - for which the school is a seminary - to tighten its restrictions on LGBT clergy and same-sex marriage: Read more.
A federal judge today dismissed a lawsuit against Venezuela by a Venezuelan national and his Massachusetts husband seeking to have their marriage recognized by that country's government. Read more.
A Venezuelan man living on the Cape has sued his homeland in Boston federal court because the Venezuelan consul in Boston won't recognize his marriage to another man. Read more.
For more than a decade, Mike Ball has chronicled the fight for same-sex marriage on his Marry in Massachusetts blog. He wrote his last post today:
Yesterday's SCOTUS decision pronouncing marriage equality as the Constitutional law of the land makes this blog unnecessary.
TD Garden in Boston right now. #LoveWins pic.twitter.com/UGIIpnQrMn
— Patrick Burke (@BurkieNHL) June 27, 2015
Supreme Court rules gay couples have the right to marry.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued its Goodridge decision on Nov. 18, 2003; the first marriages under the ruling took place on May 17, 2004.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that two women seeking to formally adopt the son one of them bore with the help of a sperm donor don't have to give him a chance to object to legally adopt the baby.
The ruling at first might seem nonsensical, since the women are married and were married at the time of their son's birth last year, and both are listed as parents on his birth certificate, so why bother with adoption?
But as the court noted ... Read more.
Live reporting from Cambridge City Hall at midnight on May 17, 2004 as the first same-sex couples applied for marriage licenses following the pioneering Goodridge decision.
Watch some video of Old South Church Minister Nancy Taylor and Associate Minister Anthony Livolsi ringing the church bells after the Supreme Court released its decision overturning the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
The ruling means, among other things, that same-sex couples in Massachusetts are now eligible for the same federal benefits as other married couples.
Down at City Hall, city workers raised a Pride flag.
Vickie Henry and Claire Humphrey yesterday sued the IRS, alleging rules that prohibit them from filing tax returns as a married couple unconstitutionally taxes them at a higher rate than other married people.
The pair, who filed their suit in US District Court in Boston, say they have filed amended returns listing them as married for 2007 and 2009 and want a refund on their taxes for those years, based on the lower rate charged a married couple versus two single people.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that people joined under Vermont's old civil-union law first have to dissolve those bonds before they can marry somebody else in Massachusetts.
The ruling comes in a divorce case in which one of the parties discovered the other was still legally a partner with somebody else in a civil union in Vermont. That state has since ditched civil unions in favor of full marriages, but it did not automatically grant people in civil unions an upgrade to marriage status.
Once you start, where do you stop? How about an organization that already has outlets all over town?
David Bernstein, meanwhile, wishes a pox on everybody and everything on every side of the Great Menino Gay Chicken Wars.
The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston ruled today that depriving same-sex spouses of federal benefits available to other spouses violates their equal protection rights.
The Jamaica Plain Gazette opined yesterday:
President Obama finally caught up with Jamaica Plain today on same-sex marriage, declaring his personal support for it in a groundbreaking announcement.
The Gazette noted that the lawsuit that made us the first state to legalize same-sex marriage had several JP plaintiffs, including Julie and Hillary Goodridge, for whom the case was named.
The Herald reports on an incident at Bridgewater State University, involving this column.
On Top Magazine reports on comments Menino made Friday in support of a new campaign to push for same-sex marriage in places that don't already allow it:
It was nearly 8 years ago that my city was the first large city in the country to marry same-sex couples. ... Back then it was a huge deal. Huge. I'm here to tell you that marriage for gay couples has made my city of Boston a much better place to live.
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