Morning Sweep

Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley has sued the federal government to overturn the section of DOMA that denies federal benefits to spouses in same-sex marriages. MA is the first state to challenge DOMA.

The ACLU, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights want in on the Prop. 8 lawsuit action to advocate on behalf of the LGBT community.

The mother of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, the 11-year-old MA boy who killed himself due to anti-gay bullying, testified before Congress yesterday along with other parents, students, educators and psychologists on strategies for improving school safety and violence prevention.

An anti-gay group in Maine may have obtained enough signatures to keep marriage for same-sex couples from moving forward. The law allowing same-sex couples to marry is supposed to take effect on Sept. 12, but if the group’s signatures are verified, the issue will instead go to the public for a vote.