U.S. House of Representatives Approves Respect for Marriage Act WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Respect for Marriage Act (H.R. 8404) by a bipartisan vote of 267-157. The bill repeals the disgraceful Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) – ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 – and codifies […]

In North Carolina this week, anti-LGBTQ extremists tried to do the unthinkable. They introduced House Bill 780, also known as the “Uphold Historical Marriage Act” in an attempt to turn back the clock and, once again, whip up anti-LGBTQ sentiment. The bill directly challenges the Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges by seeking to […]

“Perseverance in almost any plan is better than fickleness and fluctuation”—Alexander Hamilton When we adopted our NCLR tag line—”The audacity to fight for justice, the perseverance to win”—it was before President Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope” and years before the cultural phenomenon that is “Hamilton” ushered in a refreshed examination of Alexander Hamilton’s writings. […]

Now that Trump has won the presidential election, we are hearing concerns and fears from many same-sex couples who are concerned that their marriages may be challenged or invalidated.  We are also hearing from couples who are not yet married, but worried that they may lose the right to marry under a Trump administration. While […]

By a slim margin, this nation has elected a demagogue who trafficked in bigotry, stoked racist hatred and normalized misogyny. The election of Donald Trump as President threatens basic principles of human dignity and justice. Many of our most cherished values—inclusion, honoring difference, embracing equality, dismantling oppressive systems—are in jeopardy, but we will not be […]

It’s already being called “this summer’s hot documentary”—and soon, you can see The Freedom to Marry documentary for yourself at a theater near you! The Freedom to Marry is a new, “War Room” style film by award-winning filmmaker Eddie Rosenstein that provides an emotional, behind-the-scenes view of how love won – with a front-row seat […]

“…Later that night I held an atlas in my lap ran my fingers across the whole world and whispered where does it hurt? it answered everywhere everywhere everywhere” —Warsan Shire   Two days after a sniper killed five Dallas police officers, this poem, by expat Somali poet Warsan Shire, who came to world’s attention when […]

U.S. Supreme Court Made History June 26, 2015 with Landmark Decision in Favor of Marriage Equality A year ago on June 26th, several of us from NCLR sat in white-knuckled silence at the U.S. Supreme Court, waiting for the Court’s most important decision ever for LGBTQ Americans and their children. Anticipation gave way to jubilation […]

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced on July 9, 2015 that full federal marriage benefits will be available to all same-sex spouses, following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision affirming the freedom of same-sex couples to marry nationwide. These benefits include eligibility for Supplemental Security Income, compensation for spouses or families of a military servicemember who […]

  On April 28th, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in our Tennessee marriage equality case and cases from three other states. A decision is expected by the end of June. The following is the reaction from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell, who had a seat at the historic hearing.

Today, NCLR is headed to a federal courtroom in Mobile, Alabama with our four plaintiff couples who are asking the court to let them marry right away. NCLR’s legal team has been working tirelessly in Alabama to make sure that same-sex couples can marry in every part of the state. Help us finish the job! […]

By Ijpe DeKoe Tennessee Marriage Case Plaintiff Thom was my childhood sweetheart. We met in 1999 when we were in our late teens and working as camp counselors that summer. We knew there was something special in one another and maintained a close friendship for a decade before finally admitting that we were perfect together. […]

On Monday morning, I was in my hotel room in Washington, D.C. The news was on, all was as expected, and I was finishing up e-mails before heading out to a breakfast meeting. A minute later, the world was gloriously, fabulously, improbably turned upside down. I was nervously waiting, as we all were, to see […]

A year ago today, we celebrated a major tipping point in the movement for LGBTQ equality—a watershed United States Supreme Court decision that continues to impact the lives of same-sex couples across the country. The Supreme Court’s decision on June 26, 2013 striking down the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which barred the federal […]

Ever since NCLR’s founding, we have been at the forefront of some of the most important legal cases in the history of the LGBTQ movement, from winning the freedom to marry in California, to securing critical protections for LGBTQ parents in courts around the country, and all the way to the steps of the U.S. […]

The column was not exactly as advertised. This week, I finally got around to reading the blog posted on May 1 by ardent same-sex marriage foe Maggie Gallagher. A number of sources had described the blog variously as her abandoning the fight or conceding failure, noting this passage: “Hiding or pretending is not going to […]

January 2014 has barely begun and already we are off like a rocket. On December 20th, federal district court Judge Robert Shelby ruled that Utah’s Amendment 3 is unconstitutional and that same-sex couples could begin marrying there immediately. Our community, and everyone committed to justice for LGBTQ people, has been buzzing ever since. In our […]

November is National Adoption Month, and there are currently more LGBTQ parents waiting to adopt than there are children in the foster system. Unfortunately, some LGBTQ couples are denied the right to parent—and children are denied a home—because of discriminatory state policies governing same-sex adoption, and policies that allow adoption agencies to give preference to […]

NCLR has been on a tear the past several weeks. Each week, we’ve reported a great new success—our win for high school student Dynasty Young in Indiana, our federal court victory in Pennsylvania for surviving same-sex spouse Jennifer Tobits, our historic partnership with the Department of Justice on behalf of a transgender student in Arcadia, CA, and this […]

When I first heard Jennifer’s story, I was angry and shocked. Not shocked in the sense of “how could something like this happen?”—I’ve been doing this work too long to be that naïve—but shocked in the way we are when faced with cruelty and a lack of common decency. Jennifer Tobits and Sarah “Ellyn” Farley […]