LGBT Rights In The Union of Everett

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) persons are entitled to full legal rights and protections regarding equality within the Union of Everett. Since 2003, when the Union of Everett ceded from the United States, LGBT people were provided full protections under federal laws such as protection from discrimination in public and private including employment, housing, education, healthcare and protections from hate crimes. Laws such as ENDA were passed by 2004, ensuring such protections and rights to LGBT people. While individual states did not recognize same sex marriage, in the 2004 the federal government passed federal recognition of same sex and transsexual marriages and began licensing marriages federally. Gays and lesbians serving the military were protected from discharge from service in 2003 under Presidential order as Commander-in-Chief and later was passed as a law, repealing the United States' old, Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. Between 2003 and 2006, the majority of LGBT people acquired full legal rights and protections as heterosexual and non-transgender people under federal laws. Up into 2011, individual states were encouraged by the federal government to pass their own laws ensuring state level protections, even though federal law already provided such rights and protections.

State Protections
By the time the Union of Everett federal government passed same sex marriage legalization, states such as Massachusetts had already passed state level recognition. Since the federal government passed federal recognition in 2004, several states have passed their own state level protections and recognition of same sex marriage and transsexual rights. New York passed same sex marriage in 2011. The current states that have passed same sex marriage include Connecticut (2007), Vermont (2008), Maryland (2009), Ontario (2009), Quebec (2010), Hawaii (2011) and New York (2011).

Civil rights protections on the other hand have been passed by far more states, also after the federal government enforced federal level laws protecting the rights of LGBT people. Wisconsin, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Quebec, Hawaii, Ontario, New Brunswick, Maryland, Florida, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Ohio and Illinois have passed varying legal protections for homosexuals and transsexuals.