Navy: Lawmakers didn’t stop gay wedding policy
The Washington Examiner reports Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has denied that lawmaker pressure helped reverse a policy allowing chaplains to perform same-sex unions when the Pentagon recognizes openly gay military servicemembers.
Mabus said that policymakers must first address more issues besides just rules on who can get married in military chapels.
Mabus said the country “is ready” for gays in the military.
Under pressure from more than five-dozen House lawmakers, the Navy on May 10 abruptly reversed its decision on chaplains performing same-sex unions. Chaplains would only have performed the ceremonies in states where gay marriage is legal.
Lawyers: Gay judge fit to rule on gay marriage
Sign On San Diego reports lawyers are aggressively contesting claims that the federal judge who overturned California’s gay-marriage ban was biased because he is gay.
The lawyers, who represent two gay couples who sued to end the ban, filed legal papers May 13 arguing that “factually groundless” speculation that now-retired Judge Vaughn Walker wants to marry his partner and therefore would benefit from his own ruling is insufficient evidence to vacate the decision.
The religious coalition that sponsored a law banning gay marriage has asked Walker’s successor as trial judge in San Francisco to rule that he should have recused himself from considering the case or at least disclosed his same-sex relationship.
Judge James Ware scheduled a June 13 hearing on the request.
Suit filed against Ill. transgender policy
The Chicago Tribune reports the American Civil Liberties Union has sued the Illinois Department of Public Health, challenging the rules it follows to change the gender on a birth certificate.
The suit is on behalf of Lauren Grey, who said she began sex-reassignment treatment in 2001. Her driver’s license and Social Security card list her gender as female, but her birth certificate states she is male.
John Knight of the ACLU’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Project says for years the state would change people’s gender on birth certificates even if they had not had any form of genital surgery, but now they are requiring genital surgery.
Health Department spokesperson Kelly Jakubek said the department won’t comment because of the ongoing litigation.
— Larry Nichols