Federal Appeals Court hears Nebraska case
In 2000 a state constitutional anti-gay amendment was passed in Nebraska that severly restricted the rights of gays and lesbians, but last year Judge Joseph Bataillon struck down the amendment, saying it "imposes significant burdens on both the expressive and intimate associational rights" of gays and lesbians and "creates a significant barrier to the plaintiffs' right to petition or to participate in the political process.....The court finds Section 29 is a denial of access to one of our most fundamental sources of protection, the government. Such broad exclusion from 'an almost limitless number of transactions and endeavors that constitute ordinary civil life in a free society' is 'itself a denial of equal protections in the literal sense.'"

Now the state is appealing to a US federal Appeals Court, in hopes of getting the discriminatory amendment reinstated. From the article:

"As we stressed to the court today, states can't turn lesbian and gay people into political outcasts," said Tamara Lange, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project who argued before the court today.

"Yet Nebraska enacted a law that doesn't even allow gay people to lobby for protections for their relationships. The lower court understood this when it struck down this law. We hope the Court of Appeals agrees."

David Buckel, Senior Counsel at Lambda Legal called the amendment "the most extreme antigay family law in the nation and it, in effect, put a sign on the door of the Nebraska legislature saying 'Same-Sex Couples Not Allowed.'"

- posted by Keri @ 1:07 PM