The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was a United States federal law passed by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on September 21,1996. It banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage by limiting the definition of marriage to the union of one man and one woman,and it further allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states.
Roberta Achtenberg is an American attorney and civil rights advocate who served as a commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights. She was previously assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,becoming the first openly lesbian or gay public official in the United States whose appointment to a federal position was confirmed by the United States Senate. This confirmation hearing garnered a lot of publicity,opposition,and support.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States. Based in Washington,D.C.,the organization focuses on protecting and expanding rights for LGBTQ individuals,most notably advocating for same-sex marriage,anti-discrimination and hate crimes legislation,and HIV/AIDS advocacy. The organization has a number of legislative initiatives as well as supporting resources for LGBTQ individuals.
Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Massachusetts since May 17,2004,as a result of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional under the Massachusetts Constitution to allow only opposite-sex couples to marry. Massachusetts became the sixth jurisdiction in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. It was the first U.S. state to open marriage to same-sex couples.
Elizabeth Millen Birch is an American attorney and former corporate executive who chaired the board of directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force from 1992 to 1994. She served as the executive director of the Human Rights Campaign,the nation's largest LGBT organization,from January 1995 until January 2004.
Edith Hollan Jones is a United States circuit judge and the former chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
This article addresses the history of lesbianism in the United States. Unless otherwise noted,the members of same-sex female couples discussed here are not known to be lesbian,but they are mentioned as part of discussing the practice of lesbianism—that is,same-sex female sexual and romantic behavior.
Jennifer Chrisler is a former executive director of the Family Equality Council,a nonprofit LGBTQ advocacy and education organization based in the United States that was previously known as the Family Pride Coalition.
Chai Rachel Feldblum is an American author and activist for disability and LGBT rights. A former law professor at Georgetown University Law Center,she served as Commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She was nominated to the position on the EEOC by president Barack Obama in 2009. In April 2010,she received a recess appointment to the EEOC,and in December 2010 she was confirmed to serve on the EEOC by the United States Senate. The Senate confirmed her in December 2013 for a second term on the Commission which expired in July 2018.
Mary L. Bonauto is an American lawyer and civil rights advocate who has worked to eradicate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,and has been referred to by US Representative Barney Frank as "our Thurgood Marshall." She began working with the Massachusetts-based Gay &Lesbian Advocates &Defenders,now named GLBTQ Legal Advocates &Defenders (GLAD) organization in 1990. A resident of Portland,Maine,Bonauto was one of the leaders who both worked with the Maine legislature to pass a same-sex marriage law and to defend it at the ballot in a narrow loss during the 2009 election campaign. These efforts were successful when,in the 2012 election,Maine voters approved the measure,making it the first state to allow same-sex marriage licenses via ballot vote. Bonauto is best known for being lead counsel in the case Goodridge v. Department of Public Health which made Massachusetts the first state in which same-sex couples could marry in 2004. She is also responsible for leading the first strategic challenges to section three of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Beth Robinson is an American lawyer and judge from Vermont. She is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and is the first openly lesbian judge to serve on any federal court of appeals. Robinson served as an associate justice of the Vermont Supreme Court from 2011 to 2021.
Victor Basile is an author and American LGBT rights activist who was the first executive director of the Human Rights Campaign,serving in that position from June 1983 to June 1989.
Nitza Ileana Quiñones Alejandro is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Quiñones Alejandro is the first lesbian Latina to be appointed to serve as a federal judge.
Elaine Debra Kaplan is the chief judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims. She served as General Counsel of the United States Office of Personnel Management from 2009 to 2013,and as acting director of the office in 2013.
Judith Ellen Levy is an American lawyer who has served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan since 2014.
Cheryl Ann Krause is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Francis H. Woodward is a former American politician who was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.
Mary Margaret Rowland is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and a former United States Magistrate Judge for the same court.
