• Federal judge: Veterans Affairs can’t deny benefits to same-sex couples

    LOS ANGELES — A judge in Los Angeles ruled Thursday that a lesbian Army veteran and her spouse should be entitled to disability benefits given the recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act.

  • Judge refuses to dismiss gay California veteran’s lawsuit

    LOS ANGELES — A lawsuit brought by a lesbian U.S. Army veteran and her wife over the denial of disability benefits can move forward over the objections of the Department of Justice, a federal judge in California ruled Monday.

    • 2012

  • SPLC asks court to block House GOP attempt to delay disabled veteran’s case

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on Monday asked a federal court to block efforts by U.S. House Republicans to further delay a decorated 12-year U.S. Army veteran in a legal same-sex marriage from seeking the same benefits provided to other married veterans and their spouses.

  • SPLC condemns House Republicans’ intervention in disabled veteran’s case

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on Monday condemned efforts by House Republicans to prevent a decorated 12-year U.S. Army veteran and other married gay and lesbian veterans from receiving the same disability benefits provided to their married heterosexual counterparts.

  • Pelosi, Hoyer rebuke Boehner for DOMA defense in veteran case

    WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders are continuing to criticize Speaker John Boehner for defending the Defense of Marriage Act in court and accuse him of going beyond his existing authority in defense of the anti-gay law ahead of his planned intervention in a lesbian veteran’s litigation against the statute.

  • Lawsuit challenges DOMA, Veterans Affairs over denial of benefits to married same-sex couples

    The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) refusal to grant equal disability benefits to an Army veteran in a same-sex marriage is a violation of the veteran’s constitutional rights, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the law firm of WilmerHale.