LGBT Parenting Roundup

Politics and Law

The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled to preserve an adoption by the state’s only openly gay or lesbian legislator. Sen. Julia Boseman’s (D-New Hanover) former partner, Melissa Jarrell, the biological mother, was trying to deny Boseman’s parental rights, although a separate court had earlier approved the couple’s request for Boseman’s second-parent adoption. Nancy Polikoff has the nitty-gritty legal details.
New Zealand’s Acting Principal Family Court judge, Paul von Dadelszen, has stated he wants to allow same-sex couples to have the same adoption rights as opposite-sex ones. A Catholic group has objected, trotting out the tired old argument that children need one parent of each gender.
Next door, in Australia, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says there is almost no chance that same-sex couples will be allowed to adopt in the near future, even though de facto opposite-sex couples can. Queensland Council for Civil Liberties (QCCL) president Michael Cope has said the government’s stance is “confused and confusing.”

Schools and Youth

Just when you thought the whole uproar about an LGBT-inclusive safe-schools curriculum in Alameda, California was settled, a group of parents has filed a lawsuit over the district’s refusal to excuse their children from attending the classes. The parents are supported by the conservative Pacific Justice Institute.
Campus Pride issued a warning regarding the Top 20 “Gay Community Accepted” and “Alternative Lifestyle Not an Alternative” rankings in the Princeton Review’s 2010 guide, The Best 371 Colleges. College Pride objects to the use of the term “alternative lifestyle,” and more importantly, objects to the guide’s methodology, which they say is too simplistic. The rankings were based on a single question asked to 122,000 students, LGBT and not, at the 371 top colleges—whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement: “Students, faculty, and administrators treat all persons equally regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.”
The Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota agreed to pay a $25,000 settlement to the family of a high school junior after two teachers (teachers!) harassed the boy in the classroom about his perceived sexual orientation. They should make the teachers pay out of their own pockets, IMHO.
The European Committee of Social Rights ruled that Croatia’s sex-education curriculum discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation. Parts of it “stigmatize homosexuals and are based upon negative, distorted, reprehensible and degrading stereotypes.”
The HRC Foundation announced five winners of the Generation Equality Scholarship for LGBT and allied students “who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to queer equality.”

Personal Stories

Myra Lavenue, a lesbian mom in Oregon, shares the story of her family’s creation and the changing definition of family in our society.

Entertainment

Lesbian author Jeanette Winterson (Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and others) is working with the BBC on a “one-off” children’s show, Ingenious, which tells the story of an 11-year-old girl “who finds an antique glass bottle that leads her on a magical adventure.” She is also publishing a picture book aimed at younger children, The Lion, The Unicorn and Me.