Victory! New York City Adopts Policy Ensuring Transgender People Equal Access to Marriage Licenses

We are happy to announce that the city of New York has adopted a new policy designed to ensure that transgender people have equal access to marriage licenses. The policy was adopted as part of an agreement to resolve threatened legal action involving a transgender couple. The couple wishes to remain private and we refer to them as Jane and John.

Jane and John are both transgender. They are an opposite-sex couple who have been in a relationship for over a decade. In Dec. 2009, they attempted to marry in the Bronx. They fulfilled all of the requirements for receiving a marriage license in New York City and presented their government-issued photo identification – the only identification required by the City Clerk’s office. Rather than issuing the marriage license, the City Clerk refused and instead demanded that Jane and John produce their birth certificates before they could be married – something not required of other marriage license applicants.

Under the terms of the new policy, issued on Feb. 7, 2011, once a marriage license applicant produces the required photo ID, the City Clerk may not request additional proof of sex. Moreover, City Clerk employees are forbidden from considering the applicant’s appearance or preconceived notions related to gender expression when deciding whether to issue a marriage license.

“Transgender people are challenged all the time about their status as men and women,” said TLDEF executive director Michael Silverman. “Our clients are legally entitled to marry and were denied that right just because they are transgender. We applaud the City Clerk’s office for adopting this policy and for taking steps to ensure that this does not happen again.”

In addition to the adoption of the new policy, the agreement to resolve the couple’s claims calls for the City Clerk to apologize to Jane and John, to institute training for all City Clerk employees on issues relating to gender identity and gender expression, and to ensure that Jane and John are free to marry at a time and place of their choosing.

In addition to TLDEF, the legal team on this matter included Carmine Boccuzzi, David Brown and Nathan Horst of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. We are grateful for their assistance.

Thank you for your support of our work. We will continue to update you on this and other case developments.

Courtesy of Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund

Nepal to Offer Everest Weddings to Attract More Gay Tourists

Associated Press, InTransit Blog New York Times

March 15, 2010, 9:42 am

License to Wed?

SOURCE:  Times of India
DATE:  June 1, 2009
AUTHOR:  Tarunya Suresh

Even as a slew of states move to legalise gay marriages in the US, a new poll has found that most Americans still oppose it, though those under 35 are solidly in support of gay marriage legalisation.

The poll finds that just 44 per cent back gay marriage, compared with 58 per cent of those under 35. Is this a case of generation divide? Well, apparently so.
Surveys conducted in the city of Chennai show that a large number of people back gay marriages, but are very sure that the city’s sexagenarians still have problems with the concept in itself, a thought that Aditi Saraf, senior business analyst eschews.

“We still have a long way to go in India when it comes to accepting gay marriages. In a country where people still have difficulty accepting the cause of inter-religious marriages, who are we kidding by talking about same sex marriages? I’m personally all for it, because it promotes equality, but realistically, gay people are still considered ‘queer’ and it will be a long time before such a law comes into force,” she says.

However, the puritanical views of the generation gone by resonate just one sentiment — the act of homosexuality in itself is lewd, unnatural and vulgar. Laments Krishnan Sasiharan, a retired bank official, “ The concept of homosexuality is unnatural. Legalising gay marriages will erode our culture and value system. We should stop trying to ape the west in every way because theirs is, anyway, a society sans morals.”

While portions of India are deeply conservative on sexual matters, gay people are constantly subject to discrimination, ridicule, blackmail and persecution by police and government agencies, human rights campaigners say.
Read the rest of this entry »

New York should recognize out-of-state gay marriages, judge says

SOURCE: NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

BY JOSE MARTINEZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, February 3rd 2009, 5:54 PM

Same-sex marriages that are valid elsewhere should be recognized under New York law, a city judge has ruled, clearing the way for a Manhattan man to inherit the multi-million dollar estate of his late husband.

Manhattan Surrogate Judge Kristin Booth Glen ruled that Craig Leiby is the “surviving spouse and sole distributee” of longtime partner Kenneth Ranftle, who died only a few months after the couple’s wedding last year in Montreal, where same-sex marriage is legal.

Glen’s Jan. 26 ruling is the first by a New York judge that recognizes the right of a gay person to inherit a partner’s estate. Read the rest of this entry »

Tears of Joy for Nepali Gays, Transgender Persons over Supreme Court Decision

Government is directed to address discrimination – and even same-sex marriage

■ Sunil Pant MP: “It is the most beautiful news”.

SOURCE:  UKgaynews.org.uk

KATHMANDU, November 17, 2008  –  There were tears of joy in the Nepali LGBT community today when the Supreme Court published its full written decision on a petition demanding both protection and rights for sexual and gender minorities.

“Reading this decision my eyes were filled with tears and I felt we are the most proud LGBTI citizens of Nepal in the world,” admitted Nepal’s only openly gay Member of Parliament Sunil Babu Pant, who heads the country’s Blue Diamond Society.

“It is the most beautiful news,” he added.

The petition was filed by the Blue Diamond Society and three other LGBTI groups in Nepal.

The Nepali Supreme Court is translating its decision into English, but highlights from the published Nepali decision are (unofficial translation):

■  In relation to this matter, directive order has been issued to the Government of Nepal to enact new laws and amend all existing discriminatory laws so that all individuals with different sexual orientations and gender identities can exercise equal rights like any other citizens of Nepal.

■  A seven-member committee to be formed by the government of Nepal to study the different same sex partnership/marriage bill/act in other countries and recommend the government to make same sex marriage/partnership act.  Based on the recommendation of this committee, the government must introduce a same sex partnership/marriage act.

■  The decision also addressed “cross dressing saying can’t be taken as “pollution” but should be taken as individual’s freedom of expression.

■  All LGBTI must be defined as “natural persons” and their physical growth as well as sexual orientation, gender identity, expression are all part of natural growing process.  Thus equal rights, identity and expression must be ensured regardless of their sex at birth.