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Wisconsin latest state to face marriage lawsuit

‘Evasion’ statute prohibits couples from going elsewhere to wed

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Charvonne Kemp, Marie Carlson, American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU, gay news, Washington Blade, Wisconsin, gay marriage, same-sex marriage, marriage equality
Charvonne Kemp, Marie Carlson, American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU, gay news, Washington Blade, Wisconsin, gay marriage, same-sex marriage, marriage equality

Charvonne Kemp (left) and Marie Carlson filed a lawsuit in Wisconsin seeking marriage rights. (Photo courtesy of the American Civil Liberties Union)

Same-sex couples in Wisconsin joined others throughout the country on Monday in filing a lawsuit seeking same-sex marriage, but efforts there are unique because of the penalties for marrying in another jurisdiction.

The litigation seeks not only to overturn the state’s 2006 constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage, but also to enjoin state official from enforcing a “marriage evasion law” prohibiting couples — gay and straight — from going elsewhere to marry if the marriage would be prohibited in the state.

The penalties of violating the marriage evasion law in Wisconsin, which is the only state to have such a statute, include up to $10,000 in fines and nine months in prison.

For Marie Carlson, one-half of one of the couples participating in the lawsuit, the marriage evasion law is of concern as she seeks recognition of her relationship with Charvonne Kemp.

“It’s illegal in the state Wisconsin to go another state and get married if you live here,” Carlson said. “I know that it’s not really all that enforced; it’s still something that hangs over your head.”

The marriage evasion law is particularly problematic for same-sex couples in Wisconsin because the Obama administration in most cases has elected to recognize same-sex marriages even if the state doesn’t recognize them — provided these couples are able to marry in a jurisdiction that allows it.

John Knight, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT project, called the marriage evasion law a “Catch-22” for same-sex couples living in Wisconsin who want to marry.

“Wisconsin is unique in that sense, and so we think that argument particularly exemplifies the harm or the animus toward same-sex couples in some parts of the country,” Knight said.

But for Kemp, it’s not the fear of prosecution for marrying elsewhere that compels her to seek the right marry in Wisconsin, but the ability to wed in the state where she’s lived with her partner for seven years and raised two sons.

“We’re completely in love, and we’d like to be married in the state that we live in,” Kemp said. “We do have options where we could obviously leave the state and go to other states and get married, but we want to be legally recognized where we live.”

The lawsuit, Wolf and Schumacher v. Walker, was filed by the ACLU, the ACLU of Wisconsin and Mayer Brown LLP and is pending before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

Like other lawsuits filed throughout the country, the 29-page complaint filed by the groups in Wisconsin alleges the state’s ban on same-sex marriage violates equal protection and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“Although Wisconsin and this country have taken some steps to reduce discrimination against lesbians and gays, Wisconsin’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples is a striking and continuing vestige of the long history of discrimination toward lesbians and gay men,” the complaint says.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four same-sex couples seeking to marry in Wisconsin. Along with Kemp and Carlson, who reside in Milwaukee, they are: Virginia Wolf and Carol Schumacher, who reside in Eau Claire, Wis.; Roy Badger and Garth Wangemann, who live in Milwaukee; and Judith “Judi” Trampf and Katharina “Katy” Heyning, who live in Madison.

Although Wisconsin offers same-sex couples the ability to join in a domestic partnership, enacted in the state in 2009, they don’t offer same the legal rights as marriages.

Carlson said the union isn’t enough because that union provides little assistance beyond certain health insurance benefits — and that’s only if the insurance company recognizes the partnership.

“It also goes along with the fact that last like year, Charvonne’s mother passed away, and we all had to go to New Jersey for a week,” Carlson said. “I had to use vacation time because…the company I work for didn’t recognize she was legally my partner, so I didn’t get bereavement to be able to go. So, I had to use a week of my vacation.”

The office of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) didn’t immediately respond to the Washington Blade’s request to comment on the lawsuit.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, however, pledged in a statement to the Blade that he would the defend the marriage amendment.

“This constitutional amendment was approved by a large majority of Wisconsin residents,” Van Hollen said. “I believe the amendment is constitutional, and I will vigorously defend it.”

The Wisconsin litigation is among 40 pending lawsuits in 22 states throughout the country seeking marriage rights for gay couples.

Amid expectations that one will soon reach the U.S. Supreme Court for a final ruling on marriage equality, Knight said it’s possible, but he wouldn’t bet on it.

“It’s one of the possibilities it might go to the Supreme Court, but the chance of that in light of all the other cases out there is probably fairly small,” Knight said. “But it could be.”

Nonetheless, if Walker continues to fight the lawsuit and a high court ruling doesn’t happen before the case is resolved, Kemp said she’s willing to take her case to the Supreme Court to fight for marriage rights across the country if necessary.

“I’m willing to go to the Supreme Court to fight for the right for everyone to be able to get married if that’s what they choose to do,” Kemp said. “It’s about marriage equality for all, not marriage equality for some, or for just us.”

For Kemp, the ability to marry in Wisconsin is not just about the legal rights that marriage would afford, but the dignity of having the access to the same union as other couples.

“However, I want to be married just like everyone else. I want it to be legal, not just for if one of us should get sick and having rights where we’re in the hospital with the other one, but also taxes, all the things that come with marriage, good and bad,” Kemp said.

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Maryland

Maryland’s oldest rural gay bar — and one of the last — is a log cabin in the woods

The Lodge is a Boonsboro watering hole resembling a log cabin

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Jimmy Tyner, also known as Nicole James, center wearing blue gown, poses with several drag queens after hosting an annual Christmas celebration at The Lodge in Boonsboro. (Courtesy of Jimmy Tyner)

By SAPNA BANSIL | In the woods of a conservative Western Maryland town of fewer than 4,000 people is an unlikely landmark of state LGBTQ history.

The Lodge, a Boonsboro watering hole that resembles a log cabin, is Maryland’s oldest rural gay bar — one of a few remaining in the country, according to historians.

For about four decades, the Washington County venue has offered safety, escape and community to queer people far from large, liberal cities. Starting Friday night, The Lodge will close out Pride month with one of its biggest parties of the year: a weekend of dancing, drinking and drag in celebration of Frederick Pride, held about 20 miles away in the area’s largest city.

The rest of this article the Baltimore Banner published on June 27 can be read on its website.

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South Africa

Lesbian feminist becomes South African MP

Palomina Jama was sworn in on June 17

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Palomino Jama (Social media photo)

South Africa National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza on June 17 swore in lesbian feminist Palomino Jama as a new MP.

Jama joins other LGBTQ legislators — including Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson; Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Dion George; and Deputy Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities Minister, Steve Letsike.

Jama said she will work hard and excel as MP.

“What a great moment to be alive. Thank you youth of 1976, thank you Simon Nkoli, Phumi Mthetwa, Paddy Nhlaphos, Vanessa Ludwig, and others for what you did for the LGBTI people in the 80s and 90s. Lastly, for the fierce fist of the Jamas to always hit where it matters for the people of this country,” said Letsike.

Embrace Diversity Movement, a local LGBTQ organization, said Jama’s inauguration came at an appropriate time, during Pride month.

“Her swearing-in took place during a month of profound significance in June, which marks both international Pride Month and Youth Month in South Africa,” said the group. “Palomino is a seasoned queer activist and dedicated community builder with a distinguished record of leadership and service.”

“The EDM proudly supports Palomino in her deployment to parliament, her presence meaningfully advances youth and queer representation in public office,” added the Embrace Diversity Movement. “We are confident that she will serve the people of South Africa with integrity, courage, and distinction.”

South Africa is the only African country that constitutionally upholds LGBTQ rights. There are, however, still myriad challenges the LGBTQ community faces on a daily basis that range from physical attacks to online abuse.

Letsike in May faced a barrage of online attacks after she released a scathing statement against popular podcaster Macgyver “MacG” Mukwevho, who during a podcast episode in April insinuated that the reason behind popular socialite Minnie Dlamini’s “unsuccessful” relationships were probably due to the bad odor from her genitals.

Letsike, who viewed MacG’s comments as offensive, called for the podcaster to be summoned before parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities and criticized the local television station that aired the podcast.

X users and other social media subscribers bombarded Letsike with anti-lesbian comments. She, however, was unphased.

Letsike continues to face anti-lesbian comments, even though MacG apologized and the television station on which his podcast had aired cancelled its contract with him.

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Israel

Activist recalls experience in Tel Aviv after Israel-Iran war began

Marty Rouse was part of Jewish Federations of North America Pride mission

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Marty Rouse, second from left, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. (Photo courtesy of Marty Rouse)

A long-time activist who was in Israel last month when its war with Iran began has returned to D.C.

Marty Rouse traveled to Israel on June 6 with the Jewish Federations of North America. The 5-day mission ended the night before the annual Tel Aviv Pride parade was scheduled to take place.

Mission participants met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and several LGBTQ activists in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They visited the Western Wall, the Nova Music Festival site, and Nir Oz, a kibbutz in southern Israel that is less than a mile from the country’s border with the Gaza Strip. Mission participants also visited Sderot, a city that is roughly a mile from the Hamas-controlled enclave, a veterans rehabilitation facility, a new LGBTQ health center and the Aguda: The Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel in Tel Aviv.

Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, killed upwards of 360 partygoers and kidnapped dozens more at the music festival that was taking place at a campground near Re’im, a kibbutz that is roughly 10 miles southwest of Nir Oz. The militants killed or took hostage nearly a quarter of Nir Oz’s residents. They also took control of Sderot’s police station.

A burned out home in Nir Oz, Israel. Hamas militants killed or kidnapped a quarter of the kibbutz’s residents on Oct. 7, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Marty Rouse)

Tel Aviv Deputy Mayor Chen Arieli spoke at the mission’s closing party that took place at the Sheraton Grand, a hotel that overlooks Tel Aviv’s beachfront, on June 12.

Rouse and other mission participants planned to stay in Tel Aviv for the Pride parade, which was scheduled to take place the following day. He and Gordie Nathan, another mission participant who lives in Palm Springs, Calif., had checked into a nearby hotel that was less expensive.

“We said our farewells,” recalled Rouse when he spoke with the Washington Blade in D.C. on June 24. “We went to our hotels, and we get the warning, and then all hell broke loose.”

Israel early on June 13 launched airstrikes against Iran that targeted the country’s nuclear and military facilities.

Rouse said mission organizers told him and other participants who remained in Tel Aviv to meet at the Sheraton Grand for breakfast and dinner — Israel’s airspace was closed in anticipation of an Iranian counterattack, and authorities cancelled the Pride parade.

He said he went to bomb shelters at least twice a night for three nights.

Israel’s Home Front Command during the war typically issued warnings about 10 minutes ahead of an anticipated Iranian missile attack. Sirens then sounded 90 seconds before an expected strike.

Rouse and Nathan walked to the Sheraton Grand on June 13 when the Home Front Command issued a 10-minute warning. They reached the hotel in a couple of minutes, and staff directed them to the bomb shelter.

“You know to walk slowly, everything’s fine,” recalled Rouse. “You get 10 minutes, so everything was fine when the alarm goes off.”

Rouse described the Sheraton Grand shelter as “well lit” with WiFi, a television, and air conditioning. He was watching an Israeli television station’s live coverage of the Iranian missile attack when he saw one hit an apartment building in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan.

A 74-year-old woman died and her boyfriend was seriously injured.

“I go over to look at the TV, just to watch,” recalled Rouse. “All of a sudden, you watch, and you see one bomb go and land and explode in Tel Aviv on TV. It landed and blew up.”

“I was like, okay, this is real, and so that was scary,” he added.

Rouse said the bomb shelter in the hotel where he and Nathan were staying after the mission ended was far less comfortable.

“It was dark. It was humid. It was hot. It was very uncomfortable,” said Rouse. “You really felt alone.”

People in a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv, Israel, watch an Iranian missile attack on Israeli television on June 13, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Marty Rouse)

Rouse and nearly everyone else on the mission who were in Tel Aviv when the war began left Israel on June 15. They boarded buses that took them to the Jordanian capital of Amman, which is a roughly 2 1/2-hour drive from Tel Aviv through the West Bank.

Rouse described the trip as “like a field trip” until they drove across the Jordan River and arrived at the Jordanian border crossing.

“You walk into this room, and instead of being in a well air-conditioned airport, you’re in this hot, humid, small place in the middle of the desert, packed with people, and those big, large, loud fans and pictures of military people on the walls,” he said. “It was almost like a Casablanca kind of feeling.”

Rouse said Jordanian authorities brought mission participants through customs in groups of 10. A Jewish Federations of North America liaison from Amman who previously worked as a tour guide for A Wider Bridge — a group that “advocates for justice, counters LGBTQphobia, and fights antisemitism and other forms of hatred” — went “behind closed doors” to ensure everyone was able to enter the country.

“It took a really long time,” Rouse told the Blade.

The border between Israel and Jordan near the West Bank city of Jericho on June 15, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Marty Rouse)

Mission participants arrived in Amman a short time later. They checked into their hotel and then had dinner at a restaurant.

“Now we feel like we’re safe and we’re in Amman,” recalled Rouse. “We’re sitting outside having a beautiful dinner.”

Iranian missiles passed over Amman shortly after Rouse and the other mission participants had begun to eat their dessert. They went inside the restaurant, and waited a few minutes before they boarded busses that brought them back to their hotel.

“No one was openly freaking out, which I was surprised by,” said Rouse.

The group was scheduled to fly from Amman to Cairo at 11 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET) on June 16. They visited Jerash, an ancient city north of Amman, before their flight left Jordan.

“[The Jerash trip] actually took our minds off of everything,” said Rouse.

A Jewish Federations of North America contact met Rouse and the other mission participants at Cairo’s airport once their flight landed. Rouse arrived at JFK Airport in New York on June 17.

Trump-announced ceasefire ended 12-day war

President Donald Trump on June 23 announced a ceasefire that ended the 12-day war.

The U.S. three days earlier launched airstrikes that struck three Iranian nuclear sites. The ceasefire took effect hours after Iran launched missiles at a U.S. military base in Qatar.

Iran said the war killed more than 900 people in the country.

The Associated Press notes Iranian missiles killed 28 people in Israel. One of them destroyed Tel Aviv’s last gay bar on June 16.

The war took place less than two years after Oct. 7.

The Israeli government says Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, killed roughly 1,200 people on that day when it launched its surprise attack on the country. The militants also kidnapped more than 200 people.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed nearly 55,000 people in the enclave since Oct. 7. Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, has said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who the IDF killed last October, are among those who have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and Israel.

Destroyed homes in the outskirts of Khan Younis, Gaza, in January 2024. (Courtesy photo)

Rouse upon his return to the U.S. said he “was never as aware of the comfort of another human being than I was during that time.” Rouse affectionately called Nathan his “bomb shelter boyfriend” and even questioned the way he reacted to the missile alerts.

“He’s sitting on the edge of the bed and he goes, okay, I’m going to put on my socks and my shoes, and I say, really? You’re going to put on your socks,” Rouse told the Blade. “The fact that I was nervous, that putting on socks might have changed the direction of our lives, to me was like I can’t believe I said that to him.”

Rouse quickly added Nathan helped him remain calm.

“If I was by myself, those nights would have been long enough,” said Rouse. “It’s a totally different feeling to be with another human that you know than to be by yourself.”

From left: Gordie Nathan and Marty Rouse in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo courtesy of Marty Rouse)

Rouse also praised the Jewish Federations of North America.

“JFNA really sprung into action and started to figure out all options to get us all safely home,” said Rouse. “It was all about logistics. Staff worked around the clock identifying and then mobilizing to get us back to the states. It was a great team effort and I know I speak for everyone in expressing our deep appreciation for their dedication to getting us safely home.”

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