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Thirty years’ of LGBT Historic Documents Donated to Yale University

Melanie Nathan Nov 29-2010  Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) has pursued gay civil rights In New England  since the group was founded in 1978. Its precedent-setting legal victories include bringing marriage equality to Massachusetts in 2004 and Connecticut in 2008.  The group said Monday the donated materials include correspondence, legal documents and photographs from events spanning the HIV epidemic to the legalization of gay marriage in some states. Sterling Memorial Library Director of Manuscripts and Archives Christine Weideman said the university is grateful to be entrusted with preserving records from a vital part of history.  The documents show the course of marriage equality over the past 30 years in the State.

Amongst GLAD’s work is the latest challenge to DOMA; On November 9, 2010 GLAD filed  a second major, multi-plaintiff lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the government’s denial of protections and responsibilities to married gay and lesbian couples. This new action specifically addresses married couples in Connecticut, Vermont,  and New Hampshire, and comes on the heels of a Massachusetts Federal District Court ruling this summer finding DOMA Section 3 unconstitutional.

“DOMA must fall. In 1996, when Congress passed DOMA, the stated goal was to harm gay people and same-sex families with this law, and sadly, it has succeeded.  Married gay and lesbian couples fall through the federal safety nets that exist for other married people,” said Mary L. Bonauto, Civil Rights Project Director for GLAD.  “We have to keep the pressure on and get DOMA off the books before it does even more harm.”

In Pedersen et al. v. Office of Personnel Management, GLAD represents five married same-sex couples and a widower who have all been denied federal rights and protections simply because they are married to a person of the same sex.

Source: AP

Melanie Nathan
nathan@provatecourts.com