Lest you think I’ve become entirely obsessed with the Olympics (almost, but not quite), here’s a roundup of what’s happening in LGBT parenting news:

• The California Supreme Court ruled today that a group of doctors cannot use their religion as a legal excuse for denying a lesbian patient infertility treatment. Lambda Legal reports, “In a unanimous decision, the justices ruled that Guadalupe ‘Lupita’ Benitez was entitled to be treated like other patients with her same health problem, and that constitutional protections for religious liberty do not excuse unlawful discrimination.”
• Conservative activists gathered outside a California high school to rally support for Proposition 8, which would ban marriage of same-sex couples. They are apparently upset that the state’s Teachers Association donated $250,000 to fight the ban.
• Canada.com has a good interview with the mother of a trans son, in which she says, “I haven’t lost a daughter. I have gained a confident, strong level-headed son of whom I am immensely proud.” The article also mentions Families In TRANSition: A Resource Guide for Parents of Trans Youth (PDF link), which seems similar in spirit to The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals, which I reviewed last month, albeit with a Canadian bent.
• The U.K’s Guardian looks at some of the different approaches to transgender children who want to transition.

Read more »

A few weeks ago I reported on the first challenge to Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, a children’s book featuring two gay guinea pigs who marry.

Today, library director James LaRue, who wrote a sensitive, balanced response to the initial challenge, reports that a second patron has challenged the book and asked for its removal from the Douglas County Libraries in Colorado. The new patron argued that “the topic of a gay wedding is inappropriate because same sex marriage is illegal in 48 states, and specifically, in Colorado.” She also said “she knows at least 100 people ready to fill out a petition against the book.”

LaRue wrote back to point out that the setting of Uncle Bobby’s Wedding is unknown, so we don’t know if it occurs in a place where marriage of same-sex couples is illegal. He also stressed that it would be impossible for librarians to be familiar with all Colorado laws and to review each potential library acquisition to determine if any of the characters violate those laws. He explains:

Thousands and thousands of our books feature true or fictional tales of murder, robbery, kidnapping – all of which violate Colorado laws. . . . The story of Robin Hood, in which a thief and robber is regarded as a hero, would also be forbidden.” I concluded that the principle, in general, would be impossible for libraries to apply.

LaRue then offered to meet with the woman and the 100 people who agree with her. He notes that while she views this as a matter of a library advocating for a perspective she opposes, he says “it’s about the role of the public library as common and neutral ground, as a steward of public funds to represent all of the public. It’s a fair topic, and certainly deserving of community discussion.”

He also said the woman could appeal his decision to the library Board, or submit the petition and let him respond to it. He views this as an organized effort, but says, “I don’t know yet where it goes from here.”

Trying to ban books because the fictional characters do something that violates state law? I’d like to think any court would see this for the absurdity that it is. I’m realistic enough, though, to bet that this is going to be a nasty fight. I’ll keep you posted as the story develops.

• Many LGBT advocates are praising this year’s Democratic platform (not yet public) as “the most progressive major party platform with respect to LGBT issues in the nation’s history.” Some complaint that it never uses the terms “gay,” “lesbian,” “bisexual,” and “transgender,” but others argue that terms such as “same-sex couples” “sexual orientation,” and “gender identity” are in fact more inclusive.
• Karl Rove says marriage equality won’t be as big an issue in the 2008 election as it was in 2004. He should know, having made it a rallying issue for conservatives four years ago.
• The Arizona Democratic Party passed a resolution to oppose a state constitutional amendment that would define marriage as “one man, one woman.”
• The family of 15-year-old Larry King, shot to death by a classmate in Oxnard, California, is suing the school district for allowing their son to wear makeup and feminine clothing to school, actions they say led to his death. (No, a homophobic peer with behavioral problems and a gun led to his death.)

Read more »

A few interesting features from round and about:

• From The Walrus magazine in Canada comes “Frontier Families: The Complexities of Queer Parenting,” by Matthew Hays, who wrote the article after two lesbian friends of his first considered and then rejected him as a sperm donor. He turns this rejection into a broad, balanced article about the changing landscape of LGBT rights and parenting and the tradeoffs involved in known versus unknown sperm donors. Among other things, he notes that despite Canada’s leading status in terms of marriage for same-sex couples, “Canada’s laws surrounding assisted procreation have become far more restrictive than in America.” Worth a read.
• You should also read Paige Schilt’s four-part series “Of Buddhas, Brains, and Babies; or, Meditations on Parenting and Anger,” at Bilerico if you’ve ever had a child throw a tantrum or felt yourself get angry at your child’s behavior—and I think that’s pretty much all of us. (Here are Parts II, III, and IV.)
• More gay men are starting families with the help of a surrogate mother. Not shocking news to those of us in the LGBT community, perhaps, but this Associated Press coverage is a good mainstream treatment that explores many of the legal hurdles. At the same time, I have to question its premise that the possibility of marriage is incenting more same-sex couples to consider parenthood. My sense is that same-sex couples who want kids will have them, whether legal marriage is open to them or not. Those who already have kids, or are considering them, may be more inclined to marry, but the reverse isn’t necessarily true.
• Despite the title, “Dad, Dad and me: Seattle is a haven for children of gays and lesbians,” talks about children of lesbians as well. It features a number of quotes from teens and adult children of lesbian and gay parents.

Entrepreneur Jared Polis could become the first openly gay man elected to the U.S. Congress as a non-incumbent, according to the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. He won the Democratic primary last night in Colorado’s “overwhelmingly Democratic” 2nd Congressional District, and the Victory Fund says he is “nearly certain to win the seat in November.” He would join Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI; the first openly gay person of any gender elected to Congress as a non-incumbent) and Barney Frank (D-MA; who came out after serving several terms) as the only openly gay or lesbian members of Congress.

Everyone in the LGBT political blogosphere is going to be covering the news this morning. The Mombian angle, however, is that Polis’ parents are the founders of Starfall, a wonderful pre-reading and early-reading site for kids. Read more »

• Why is the military prepared to shell out $150,000 in retention bonuses to service members who are proficient in Arabic, when it has used the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy to dismiss more than five dozen qualified and willing Arabic speakers? Steve Ralls, PFLAG’s director of communications, who also held that role for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, asks this very good question at HuffPo.
• Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), a supporter of Hillary Clinton, has announced that she is now backing Barack Obama for president. She will now chair his LGBT Steering Committee along with University of Pennsylvania law professor Tobias Wolff.
• The total number of LGBT delegates to the Democratic National Convention is up 27% from 2004, according to the National Stonewall Democrats, accounting for 6% of total delegates. The Washington Blade adds, however, that many states missed their voluntary goals for the number of LGBT delegates.

Read more »

Senators Obama and McCain have very different views of LGBT families, as I mentioned Monday. Yesterday, I received an e-mail from Obama’s campaign about the expansion of his LGBT leadership team. It only adds to his status as the candidate committed to LGBT families.

There will be five new national co-chairs of Obama Pride, which will build grassroots support for Obama in the LGBT community. One is Marsha Botzer, who co-chairs the Safe Schools Coalition, an organization aimed at making schools safer for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Read more »

A few items from recent news:

• Which state has the highest percentage of LGBT couples with children? Mississippi, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, and reported by The Daily Mississippian. (Thanks to the Family Equality Council for the link.) The state also has the highest percentage of African American same-sex couples. The Census data does not, however, record the number of LGBT single parents out there.
• Nancy Polikoff, author of Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law, brings us up to date on legislation in D.C. that would give expanded rights to non-biological parents in cases of donor insemination.
• Two publishers in Sweden are facing criticism over their efforts to be more inclusive of non-traditional families and gender roles in their books.
• The Family Equality Council has posted photos from Family Week 2008 in Provincetown, MA, and Between the Lines reports on the Family Week in Michigan run by Rainbow Families Great Lakes.
• Following the success of Camp fYerfly, a summer camp for LGBT youth in Edmonton, Canada, two new camps will launch next summer. The new camps, in Ottawa and British Columbia, will carry the Camp fYerfly name and follow the same philosophy of “youth teaching youth.” Two more camps, in Halifax and Saskatchewan, will open at a later date.
• Lesbian mom and Republican scion Mary Cheney and her partner Heather Poe have donated $3,000 to fight Proposition 8, the marriage-equality ban in California.
• Conor Pendergrast, a 22-year-old son of lesbian moms, writes in The Irish Times about his family and urges the Irish government “to provide the means of extending the rights and responsibilities of biological parents to non-biological parents.”

Compare and contrast:

John McCain: “I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption.”

Seriously. Do we really want a president who can’t count to two? He later “clarified” to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos:

I am for the values and principles that two-parent families represent, and I also do point out that many of these decisions are made by the states, as we all know, and I will do everything I can to encourage adoption—to encourage all of the things that keeps (sic) families together…

Barack Obama, in response to a letter from the Family Equality Council asking what he will do for all families: Read more »

The Grossmont Union High School District in California voted 4-0 yesterday in support of Proposition 8, the November ballot initiative that would ban marriage of same-sex couples in California. It is believed to be the first public school board in the state to do so.

The San Diego Union-Tribune notes that some supporters of the ban have expressed concern that if same-sex marriages are legal, kindergarteners will have to be taught they are the same as opposite-sex ones. While the exact reasons of the Grossmont board are unclear, it doesn’t seem like a stretch to assume they are concerned about teachers having to address issues related to same-sex relationships.

Ugh. I can’t imagine being an LGBT student and/or the child of LGBT parents in that school district.

The school board would do well to take note of a great article on young adult literature with LGBT content by Katherine Mason, an assistant professor of English Education at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. It’s aimed at secondary-school English teachers, but well worth reading by all educators and parents of teens and pre-teens. Mason discusses results of research she conducted among teachers in the state, looking at their awareness of and attitudes towards literature with LGBT content.

Among other things, she found, Read more »