2005 Newsletters

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2005

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2005

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2005

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2005

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2005

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2005

Marriage ban is against U.S. constitution, judge rules

From the Gay People's Chronicle:

Cleveland--Another trial court added to the collection of contradictory rulings on the effect of Ohio’s anti-marriage constitutional amendment on November 28, finding that the measure invalidates domestic violence protections for unmarried couples.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge James P. Celebrezze’s decision also found that the second sentence of the amendment violates the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
In the case, Tori D. Phelps asked Celebrezze’s domestic relations court for a protection order against her boyfriend, Brian K. Johnson.

Ohio’s domestic violence law allows unmarried same-sex and opposite-sex couples to obtain protection orders in family court, and requires local police departments to enforce them.

Conservatives on the Edge

Equality Ohio is featured in this article by The Advocate:

In late October the Kansas supreme court issued a remarkably sensible pro-gay ruling: It struck down the portion of a state law that punished underage sex more severely if it involved homosexual acts.

The case involved Matthew Limon, who in 2000 was found guilty of performing consensual oral sex on a 14-year-old boy when Limon was 18. He was sent off to prison for 17 years. Had Limon had sex with a girl, state law would have dictated a maximum sentence of 15 months. (The statute protects heterosexual lovers when one is 18 or younger and the age difference between the two is no more than four years.) The unanimous Kansas court found that having different punishments for gay and straight sex acts was plainly unconstitutional. “Moral disapproval of a group cannot be a legitimate governmental interest,” wrote Justice Marla J. Luckert for the court.

Equality Ohio marks the one year anniversary of Ohio’s anti-gay marriage amendment

Columbus, OH – Would the 62% of Ohioans who voted in the 2004 election still have supported the constitutional ban on marriage equality if they’d known the stories of the lives of their fellow citizens? Equality Ohio doesn’t think so.

Today, in recognition of the one-year anniversary of the day the marriage ban went into effect, the organization officially launched an ambitious new effort to tell the stories of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Ohioans and their family, friends and relatives. The “Our State, Our Lives, Our Home Stories Project” is a collection of true stories, told in the first-person, about what it is like to live in (or leave) Ohio given the current climate.

“What we have seen in this year’s collection of stories is a common theme of patriotism and a genuine love for the Buckeye State,” said Executive Director Lynne Bowman. “There are expressions of sadness and anger over last year’s vote, but there are just as many stories of hope that Ohio will be a more welcoming place in the future.” Read the full news release