As promised, Lambda Legal has filed an appeal of Federal Judge Perez-Gimenez’s ruling that upheld Puerto Rico’s ban on same-sex marriage. The case will now be heard by the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. The Washington Blade reports:

“Puerto Rico has many loving, committed couples who need the dignity and respect of marriage as soon as possible, and we won’t stop fighting on their behalf,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan of Lambda Legal. Ada Conde Vidal and Ivonne Álvarez Vélez of San Juan filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in March. Four additional gay and lesbian couples along with Lambda Legal and Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, a Puerto Rican LGBT advocacy group, joined the case three months later. 

Puerto Rico’s ban on same-sex marriage was enacted in 1999 after lawmakers amended the U.S. commonwealth’s civil code to ban recognition of same-sex marriages. The decision out of Puerto Rico contradicts the larger trend we have been witnessing whereby federal and appellate court judges have been striking down bans on same-sex marriage:

“The district’s court ruling is not only out of step with the rest of the country, it leaves Puerto Rico as the only jurisdiction within the First Circuit to ban marriage for same-sex couples,” said Gonzalez-Pagan. “During the past year reasoned rulings by district courts throughout the nation and the Courts of Appeals for the 4th, 7th, 9th and 10th Circuits, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court’s actions to let stand some of those rulings, clearly demonstrate that marriage bans, such as Puerto Rico’s, are unconstitutional.” 

Gov. Alejandro García Padilla, who is among the defendants in the case, publicly supports civil unions for gays and lesbians. He reiterated his opposition to marriage rights for same-sex couples last week after Pérez-Giménez announced his ruling. “The government should not be in the business of discriminating against its people,” said Gonzalez-Pagan. “It is disappointing that Puerto Rico continues to perpetuate the harms it causes to loving, committed Puerto Rican same-sex couples.”

Now that the issue of same-sex marriage in Puerto Rico is headed to the 1st Circuit, SCOTUS Blog considers the impact its decision will have on the larger issue of same-sex marriage in the United States:

Two years ago, the First Circuit said flatly that it was still required to follow the Supreme Court’s summary, one-sentence ruling in 1972, in the case of Baker v. Nelson.  That ruling, it said, is “binding precedent” which bars an argument that there is “a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.”  And, it noted, the Supreme Court has not overturned that ruling in more recent gay rights decisions.  The Baker decision said without elaboration that a plea for a right to marry a same-sex partner did not raise “a substantial federal question.”

The question now is whether the First Circuit will continue to adhere to that view, in the face of a broad wave of federal court decisions indicating that Baker v. Nelson no longer remained an obstacle to striking down state laws against same-sex marriage.   If the First Circuit holds fast, it could set up a split on this issue that could lead the Supreme Court to step into the same-sex marriage controversy in a way that it has so far avoided.

In his ruling on October 21 rejecting the couples’ challenge to Puerto Rico’s ban, U.S. District Judge Juan M. Perez-Gimenez said that he had no choice because of the 1972 precedent and because of the First Circuit’s comments about Baker v. Nelson‘s continued validity.  The Baker decision, he said, is still controlling, “even when other cases would seem to undermine the Supreme Court’s holdings….The Supreme Court is perfectly capable of stating its intention to overrule a prior case.”

Corporal Nathan Cirillo, who was killed last week at the War Memorial in Ottawa, Canada, was laid to rest yesterday.

Sexual harassment claims, leaked emails dominate last weeks of gay Republican Carl DeMaio’s congressional race: “Maybe the only certain thing about the final weeks of the 52nd Congressional District race is that an angry former staffer without a nondisclosure agreement is a major headache for Republican candidate Carl DeMaio. Todd Bosnich, DeMaio’s former policy director, says he was fired for telling DeMaio to stop sexually harassing him. DeMaio says Bosnich was fired for plagiarizing a pension report.”

Vine star Nash Grier, who gained notoriety after a now infamous anti-gay Vine of his that went viral, partners with teen retailer Aeropostale.

Woman records disturbing video detailing what it’s like to be heckled by random men on the streets of New York.

Amanda Bynes to remain under parents’ conservatorship.

Scream is coming to MTV.

Iraqi tycoon builds to-scale replica of The White House in Northern Iraq.

Benedict Cumberbatch brings his handsome to the cover of Elle UK.

Wreckage from Amelia Earhart’s final and ill-fated flight positively identified: “According to researchers at The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), which has long been investigating the last, fateful flight taken by Earhart 77 years ago, the aluminum sheet is a patch of metal installed on the Electra during the aviator’s eight-day stay in Miami, which was the fourth stop on her attempt to circumnavigate the globe.”

Neil Patrick Harris gets carried away by Alec Baldwin at the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s benefit last night.

Taylor Swift will donate proceeds from “Welcome to New York” single to NYC public schools. 

Meanwhile, Swift’s second single off of 1989, “Out of the Woods”, got mashed up with Beyonce’s “XO.”

Questions of anti-gay bias hit San Diego Police Department: “Is the San Diego Police Department’s policy of cracking down on scantily clad partygoers at San Diego’s annual gay pride parade while refusing to do the same at beaches and during the Over the Line nament and other local events legal? A panel of judges will answer that question when they hear a recently filed appeal from a man who was arrested in 2011 at San Diego’s Pride festival for wearing a leather gladiator-style kilt.”

700 year old viruses found in ancient reindeer poop.

Melissa Rivers to file lawsuit against medical facility where mother Joan went into cardiac arrest.