In the Uned Stat between 2004 and 2009, 42 urt s were cid that volved claims of homosexualy as famatn. Comparatively, 59 s were cid durg the prev 150 years. Dpe: 1) judg three stat lg is not famatory to ll someone gay; 2) the Supreme Court strikg down sodomy laws natnwi 2003 via Lawrence v.
Contents:
- FALSELY CLAIMG SOMEONE IS GAY IS NO LONGER FAMATN PER SE, N.Y. URT L
- STRICTLY LEGAL: CAN THE CLAIM THAT SOMEONE IS GAY BE FAMATN?
- A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
- LABEL OF GAY IS NO LONGER DEFAMATORY, COURT RUL
- GAY AND LBIAN ALLIANCE AGAST DEFAMATN (GLAAD)
- JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
FALSELY CLAIMG SOMEONE IS GAY IS NO LONGER FAMATN PER SE, N.Y. URT L
* gay defamation *
Falsely accg someone of beg gay is no longer nsired famatn per se, a New York appeals urt led recently.
” Falsely claimg that someone is homosexual had also been lumped . "Eric Lh, LGBT Bar Associatn of New YorkIn late December, however, the Supreme Court of the State of New York’s Send Department — one urt below the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s hight urt — overturned that s-old precent when led that a false claim of homosexualy is no longer famatn per se. Mrice, began 2017, when Jean Renald Mrice, a pastor at the Gethsemane Seventh Day Adventist Church Brooklyn, publicly claimed at a church meetg of 300 people that a church elr, Pierre Delor Laguerre, “was a homosexual” and that he “disrpected the church by viewg gay pornography on the church’s puter, ” acrdg to the urt opn.
STRICTLY LEGAL: CAN THE CLAIM THAT SOMEONE IS GAY BE FAMATN?
GLAAD (Gay and Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn), anizatn created 1985 that is voted to unterg discrimatn agast lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (LGBTQ) dividuals the media and promotg unrstandg, acceptance, and equaly. * gay defamation *
Mlla, a 2012 lg by the Supreme Court’s Third Department that found that prev cisns labelg false claims of homosexualy as famatn per se were "nsistent wh current public policy and should no longer be followed. " That cisn also led that “ nnot be said that current public opn supports a le that would equate statements imputg homosexualy wh accatns of ser crimal nduct or suatns that an dividual has a loathsome disease. Texas, which found that laws crimalizg homosexual nduct were unnstutnal, and the urt’s 2015 cisn Obergefell v.
A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
The urt said was nyg a false premise that is shameful to be scribed as gay, lbian or bisexual. * gay defamation *
“Based on the foregog, we nclu that the false imputatn of homosexualy do not nstute famatn per se, ” the Send Department wrote s Dec. When given the opportuny, Lh said they will likely le the same way the Send and Third Departments the Uned Stat, whether false claims of homosexualy are nsired famatory per se is pennt on the state and, often, on the urt. Historilly, many stat nsired false accatns of homosexualy to be famatn per se, bee their state law crimalized homosexual nduct.
Defamatn lawsus rultg om false accatns of beg LGBTQ — like the one brought before New York’s Send Department — are ls mon than they once were due to creasg acceptance of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer people, acrdg to Brad Sears, executive director of the Williams Instute at UCLA School of Law. In the Uned Stat between 2004 and 2009, 42 urt s were cid that volved claims of homosexualy as famatn.
Dpe: 1) judg three stat lg is not famatory to ll someone gay; 2) the Supreme Court strikg down sodomy laws natnwi 2003 via Lawrence v.
LABEL OF GAY IS NO LONGER DEFAMATORY, COURT RUL
Bee of the sheriff's posts, David Gay lost a job and suffered emotnal distrs, acrdg to the lawsu seekg more than $50,000 damag. * gay defamation *
Texas, thereby removg sodomy and the implitn of crimal activy as a jtifitn for famatn; and 3) posive shifts public opn about gays and lbians the U.
And numero policy chang at the lol, state, and feral levels, there has been a dramatic crease the number of famatn s pertag to claims of homosexualy but paratively few answers provid by urts as to why. Feral and state famatn lgs regardg claims of homosexualy did not parallel other legal advancements and posive shifts public attus toward gay men and lbians.
Among the s analyzed, one portn of which clud fendants’ verbal and/or wrten accatns of platiffs’ prumed or affirmed sexual orientatn, behavr, or inti, claims of homosexualy as famatory failed 38 out of 42 s bee judg granted summary judgment for the fendants, dismissed the s altogether, or nclud that statements were not pable of beg famatory.
GAY AND LBIAN ALLIANCE AGAST DEFAMATN (GLAAD)
Overwhelmgly, judg failed to directly addrs whether claims of homosexualy are famatory today, a liberate oversight that is problematic for several reasons. When judg or state legislatur choose not to addrs whether imputatns of homosexualy are famatory, all are left wh an plete picture of the issue, which may turn rult both a higher number of famatn s and more nfn the ongog equaly battle. In the Uned Stat today, gays and lbians do not share equal rights wh heterosexuals, yet signifint advancements have been ma the last , such as repeals of the ary’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), 12 stat offerg marriage to all rints, and Print Obama signg the Matthew Shepard and Jam Byrd, Jr.
The policy chang, bed wh the fact that famatn law reli on social mor, renrs the issue of homosexualy as famatory a relevant, ever-changg topic for vtigatn for dividuals ncerned wh equaly any pacy. As gays and lbians secure more civil rights njunctn wh chang public opn, is likely that judg’ lgs will be more cled to mirror public opn, as happened prr famatn s.
JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
Yet, as the ntradictory lgs of two New York judg recently illtrated, public opn alone do not always lead to non-famatory lgs wh the same geographic lole, nor do the existence of same-sex relatnship regnn and other laws affordg gays and lbians equal rights.
Defamatn lgs feed to public opn, as cizens look to the law to tablish social norms, creatg a proverbial chicken-or-the-egg bate wh the likelihood of stuntg policy change and possibly further ntributg to the bullyg-related youth suicis among dividuals who intify as or are perceived to be lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, or queer (LGBTQ). For example, public opn rearch suggts that homosexualy ntu to be a polarizg issue Amerin polics, and judg at all levels may be allowg their own attus towards homosexualy to terfere, as appeared to be the se wh Chief Jtice Warren Burger the Lawrence v. The implitns of the cisns, particularly those mandated by the Supreme Court, are likely to fluence how lower urts le famatn s spe famatn law beg mon law – pecially when homosexualy as famatory s are currently unrway natnwi wh ltle precent for urts to rely on for cisn makg.
IntroductnGLAAD – the world’s largt Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr and Queer (LGBTQ) media advocy anizatn – creas media acuntabily and muny engagement that ensur thentic LGBTQ stori are seen, heard, and ’s founrs battled discrimatn wh facts and passn om the start, as the handful of journalists 1985 saw fay members dyg of AIDS, a ernment unwillg to help, and flammatory headl overwhelmg newsstands.