A Texas gay couple who was married in Massachusetts in 2006 filed for divorce last fall in a Dallas family court.  Dallas Judge Tena Callahan, who accepted the case last fall, took a step further from granting the couple a divorce and ruled that the state’s ban on gay marriage violates the U.S. Constitution. Texas has a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott will argue that a Texas court can’t dissolve a marriage that it doesn’t recognize; oral arguments in the appeals case will be heard on Wednesday afternoon in a Dallas appeals court. Earlier this month a District judge in a Travis County (Austin, Texas) denied Attorney General Abbott request to intervene in a same-sex divorce case in that district

In other states where gay marriage is not legal, divorce by gay couples has met mixed results. In March, a Pennsylvania judge refused a case by two women who married in Massachusetts now seeking a divorce, while New York grants such divorces even though the state doesn’t permit same-sex marriage.

According to the Government Accountability Office, there are 1,138 federal benefits that are denied to same-sex couples because they are not recognized as a legitimate married couples by the federal government – even in states where same-sex marriage is legal.  Some of the 1,138 benefits include things like tax and military benefits, employment rights, family protections and access to federal benefits and services.

In March, Equality Forum, a national and international gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) civil rights organization, launched a Project 1138 web site to create awareness about the 1,138 federal benefits denied GLBT couples. Project 1138 calls on its members and the GLBT community and allies to take action by contacting their elected officials in Congress and demanding the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Since first recognizing same-sex couples as domestic partners in 1996, Iceland has taken increasing steps to further gay and lesbian equality, in 2006, passing laws guaranteeing the same social rights as heterosexuals to lesbian and gay men in the spheres of social security, taxation, labor, and other social services including the same access to adoption as heterosexuals who are married or in registered domestic partnerships.

On March 23, Iceland’s openly lesbian prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardóttir, presented a revision to current marriage law to the Icelandic parliament to permit same-sex marriage.  The revision is widely expected to become law, and when it does, the first same-sex marriages could happen as early as June 27, 2010, the date of Gay Pride in the capital city of Reykjavík.

On Sunday, a number of California State and local officials joined hundreds of people outside the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center in Hollywood to kick off a national grass-roots campaign demanding equal Social Security benefits for same-sex couples.  The demonstration is a kick off to a national grassroots campaign fighting for same-sex partners to receive federal Social Security benefits, the same benefits afforded to heterosexual married couples if a spouse becomes disabled or dies.

Currently, people in same-sex relationships are denied Social Security survivor benefits from their deceased partners because the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriages recognized by a handful of states  or domestic partnerships as valid relationships.  One rally member was quoted on the issue of same-sex Social Security benefits saying:

“Same-sex couples should get Social Security benefits,” Tran said. “It’s different from the marriage argument — this is more about a need for economic equality.”

Two U.S. Representatives who were present at the rally announced their intent to introduce and support legislation to provide equal Social Security benefits for same-sex couples.

For more on this article, visit the Los Angeles Times

Since 2004, when the Civil Partnerships Act was passed in Britain, gay couples can be recognized under a ‘civil partnership’ and are afforded the same legal treatment as married couples with regards to a wide range of matters; however, the 2004 law stopped short of terming gay partnerships as a ‘marriage.’

On Sunday, George Osborne, Britain’s Shadow Chancellor and member of the Conservative Party, met with gay rights leaders to discuss equality issues and advancing the issue of gay marriage in Britain.  Britain’s Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, has suggested in an interview with Total Politics magazine that same-sex marriage is no different than traditional marriage:

“I stood up… and said that marriage was important, and as far as I was concerned it didn’t matter whether it was between a man and a woman, a man and a man or a woman and a woman”.

Although the present Government introduced same-sex civil partnerships some years ago, it has stopped short of calling these ‘marriages’.

Last year Mr Cameron said that any tax break for married couples introduced by the Conservative Party would also apply to same-sex couples in civil partnerships.

The Conservative Party in Britain is showing progress toward marriage equality for all, regardless of sexual orientation, and is beginning to take steps to move the country forward on issues of gay rights, including marriage equality.