Lesbian
Caucus Chair:

Lisa R. Burke
Click to email
Office: 609-658-1614

---

GET INVOLVED

Join the Caucus
Visit our Forum!

---

NWSA GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP
IN LESBIAN STUDIES $500
Click Here

2009 Lesbian Caucus Graduate Student Scholarship Award
sponsored and administered by
the Lesbian Caucus of the National Women’s Studies Association

Submission Deadline:  May 1, 2009 (postmark deadline; electronic submissions encouraged via NWSA website)

The purpose of the annual NWSA Lesbian Caucus Award is to provide a $500 research award in recognition of a Master’s Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation research project that resonates with the mission of NWSA and the goals of the Lesbian Caucus.

Graduate students embarking on this phase of their academic career are encouraged to submit. Membership in NWSA is encouraged but not required. 

The field of the degree is open, but the work should focus on lesbian (defined broadly) lives, identities, or realities and make a contribution to the fields of lesbian and sexuality studies. 

Award applications (http://www.nwsa.org/scholarship/lcguide.php) are evaluated on the basis of

1. Clarity of project description;
   
   
2. Relevance to mission of NWSA, goals of Lesbian Caucus, and field of Women’s and Gender Studies;
   
   
3. Engagement of feminist analytical frameworks/ methodologies; and
   
   
4. Potential impact on the fields of lesbian/sexuality studies.

All applicants are encouraged to apply for NWSA Travel Grant Awards if financial assistance is needed to attend the NWSA Annual Conference (a separate application is required so see www.nwsa.org for details).  
For further information,
contact Lisa Burke at lcchair@lists.nwsa.org.

---

The Marraige Issue

Jeff Jones, of the University of Kentucky, compiled the following as of April 7, 2009.
______________________

With this week's news about same-sex marriage in Iowa, Vermont, and DC, the patchwork of varying rights for same-sex couples is becoming more complex:

WHERE SOME RIGHTS EXIST:

MA, CT, IA, and VT have full marriage rights.

CA, NJ, NH, and OR offer almost all the benefits of marriage under another name (civil unions, domestic partnerships).

WA, DC, HI, MD, and ME offer some limited benefits to same-sex couples under domestic partnership laws.

NY and DC both explicitly recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

RI and NM may recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states but this has not been tested yet.

NH and ME are both considering bills to legalize equal marriage benefits for same-sex couples.

MD had a bill seeking to legalize same-sex marriages but it didn't move in the latest legislature.

NM and HI both considered bills to create full civil unions, but they failed this term. HI's bill passed its House but did not come up for a vote in the Senate.

CA had domestic partnerships, then marriage, and then banned marriages. The CA Supreme Court is considering whether a majority of voters can amend a state constitution to erase a fundamental right for a minority and whether the 36,000 people married under the prior law should be forcibly divorced.

NO RIGHTS:
Some states ban same-sex marriages but not civil unions. Thus, they leave the door open for civil unions.

Some ban marriage by statute/state laws. Others ban marriage via a constitutional amendment. Some states have both.

Kentucky has one of the most oppressive legal status. Both a state law and constitutional amendment ban same-sex marriages in the state and recognition of those performed in other states. To boot, Kentucky voters amended the state constitution to ban civil unions as well.

IN OTHER COUNTRIES:
In general, same-sex couples receive all or some of the rights granted opposite-sex couples in Europe, Australia/New Zealand, South America, and North America (more conservative areas of the US and Mexico now becoming the exceptions). Most of Asia has no recognition of same-sex couples. Much of the Middle East and Africa (except for South Africa), on the other hand, criminalize homosexuality (which is punishable by death in some countries). The pattern closely resembles which countries and provinces have the most women in political life and/or have laws more equitable to women.

Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, South Africa, and Norway all have full marriage rights.

France and Israel do not perform same-sex marriages but recognize them if performed elsewhere.

Most of western and central Europe, New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland, Uruguay, etc. offer civil unions or recognition of cohabitating couples. A number of provinces and states in Australia and several South American countries also offer some type of civil union or domestic partnership.