Because the financial bailout isn’t the only thing happening this week:
- Ten-year-old Kira Findling of Sebastopol, California, wrote “Please Let My Moms Be Married,” a moving plea to vote no on Prop. 8, for the Press Democrat newspaper.
- A new report by the nonpartisan Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute in New York concludes that gay men and lesbians are an important part of the pool of potential adoptive parents, and should be judged on their qualifications, not sexual orientation. The report cites the previous statistic that a national ban on adoption by gay men and lesbians could add $87-130 million to foster care system expenditures each year.
- The PepsiCo Foundation has given a grant of $500,000 to PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) to support their national education campaign, Straight for Equality, and for training and chapter support.
- County social workers and several private adoption agencies in Westchester County, New York will meet this week with same-sex couples and single people who are considering kids. 900 children in Westchester County are in need of homes.
- The Miami Herald profiles the two men who became the first same-sex couple to adopt a child in Florida.
- High schools in Abbotsford, BC, have been told not to run a new course on social justice until the local school board reviews its content. The elective course deals with issues such as homophobia and animal rights, and conservatives are worried that teachers will not be objective in teaching it. Some schools have tried to revise the course, taking out the parts that deal with LGBT rights and homophobia.
- San Francisco activist Michael Petrelis and his partner Mike Merrigan gave copies of Heather Has Two Mommies
and Daddy’s Roommate
to the Wasilla, Alaska, public library in response to rumors that vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin may have tried to ban LGBT-themed books there. The director of the Wasilla library, K.J. Martin-Albright, last week posted a note to the Publisher’s Weekly blog stating that Heather had been challenged at one point and was kept on the shelves, but is no longer there because of broader decisions to remove material that was not in demand. “The library no longer has ‘Heather,'” she said, “but we do our best to offer materials encompassing all different points of view and presenting every side to an argument.” Petrelis and Merrigan hope to put Daddy’s Roommate and And Tango Makes Three
in all of Alaska’s 101 public libraries. They chose Tango over Heather for the broader initiative because they say Heather is out of print—but to the best of my knowledge, it is still available in the 10th Anniversary Edition
- Greater Good magazine has an article this month on reducing racism in schools. While it doesn’t tackle homophobia, I think some of the same lessons apply. Worth a read in any case.