American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

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A Cook County, Ill., judge on Thursday consolidated the two separate lawsuits representing 25 Illinois gay and lesbian couples asserting the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Illinois will announce two separate lawsuits Wednesday morning seeking same-sex marriage rights for Illinois gay and lesbian couples.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A bill that would amend the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act to allow religiously based child welfare institutions to decline adoption to couples in a civil union was killed in Springfield Friday by activists from the ACLU of Illinois and The Civil Rights Agenda.

A group of 70 organizations is asking President Obama to build on his work against bullying in schools by endorsing legislation pending in Congress that would prohibit harassment of LGBT students.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A federal district court has ruled that a Missouri school district must stop using filtering software to censor web content geared toward the LGBT community. The ruling orders the Camdenton R-III School District to discontinue filtering content that includes LGBT-supportive information, including hundreds of websites that are not sexually explicit in any way.

WASHINGTON — A Department of Housing and Urban Development official said Monday religious institutions receiving federal funds for housing programs will have to abide by a new HUD rule prohibiting discrimination against LGBT people.

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — A judge has sentenced 15-year-old Levi Sever to a 90-day sentence in a juvenile detention center for the October assault on an openly gay classmate that was recorded on video and then posted to Facebook.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio on Monday announced it would represent the family of a Chillicothe, Ohio gay teen who was assaulted last month because of his sexual orientation. The brutal attack captured national attention when a video of the assault was later posted to Facebook.

BELLEVUE, Wash. — A broad, statewide coalition of organizations, congregations, unions and business associations came together on Monday to announce the formation of Washington United for Marriage – a coalition that will work to obtain civil marriage for lesbian and gay couples in Washington state in 2012.

The ACLU of Utah has sent a warning to the state’s school district superintendents, cautioning them that banning same sex couples from being attending proms, dances and other school functions violates their constitutional rights.