Happy Monday, everyone! Here’s a roundup of what’s been going on in the news about LGBT parents. Schools and Education Joanne Herman asks, “Should we introduce children to the concept of transgender people?” and answers definitely “yes,” noting (among other things) a paper published in the December 2010 issue of the peer-reviewed Graduate Journal of […]
President Obama, in his State of the Union address, noted the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and called on college campuses that had banned military recruiters and ROTC because of the policy to allow them to return. Some LGBT advocates are saying colleges should not do so until servicemembers are protected against gender identity
Helen and I show you the connection between vampire bunnies and anti-bullying efforts. We also discuss some psychedelic kids’ movies and books we’ve been enjoying, and wonder how Disney’s Fantasia got away with being so risqué. (Topless female centaurs! In 1940! And Disney still shies away from openly gay characters, even fully clothed.) Mombian: She
The American Library Association (ALA) has published its fourth annual Rainbow Bibliography, a list of recommended children’s and young adult books with significant LGBTQ content. The list is a yet another arrow in the quiver of those looking to support LGBTQ youth and children of LGBTQ parents—and I don’t need to tell you how important that is these days.
I often get e-mail from lesbian parents seeking legal advice for various matters: protecting both parents’ rights as they embark on parenthood; wanting advice in a custody or other dispute; wondering if their county/state will allow second-parent adoptions, and the like. I am not a lawyer, so I can’t offer advice myself, but I can
(Originally published as my Mombian newspaper column, hence the slightly belated posting here. But it’s still January, so I figure it’s still good.)
As 2010 gives way to 2011, let us ask: How has the year been in terms of political and legal progress for LGBT parents and our children?
The most notable parenting-specific win of the year was arguably Florida’s judicial overturning of its ban on adoption by gay men or lesbians. Mississippi, however, continues to ban same-sex couples from adopting, and Arkansas, Michigan, and Utah ban unmarried couples, which means essentially the same thing. The federal Every Child Deserves a Family Act, which would have withheld federal funds from states and other entities that discriminate against gay men and lesbians in adoption or foster care placements, was introduced in March, but failed to make it out of committee.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed new federal regulations that would ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in its core housing programs. (My piece on this at Keen News Service. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case of a group of clergy who want
The two children at the heart of the case that legalized adoption for gay men and lesbians in Florida have now been legally adopted by Martin Gill. The family had an adoption ceremony yesterday in the offices of Judge Cindy Lederman, the Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge who ruled that the adoption ban was unconstitutional and said
If you read one piece today about LGBT parenting, make it this excellent New York Times piece about our demographics, which informs us “Child rearing among same-sex couples is more common in the South than in any other region of the country.”
Sometimes parts of my life collide in unexpected ways. My sister-in-law gave my seven-year-old son a copy of Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery for the holidays, and he’s been enjoying it thoroughly. It’s the first of the delightful series by James Howe about a vampire bunny who sucks juice from vegetables. I highly recommend it.
