Politics and Law
- The government of New South Wales, Australia, has refused to change the law and allow same-sex couples to adopt, despite a six-month parliamentary inquiry that found doing so would be in the best interests of children. It says the issue is “too complex and sensitive” and there is not enough community support.
- Ultra-right sites are abuzz with the story of Karen Kelsky, who was just given permission to move from Illinois to Oregon with her children from a previous opposite-sex marriage. The right is upset because the children will be living in “the lesbian mecca of Portland, Oregon” with Kelsky and her new female partner.
- A Canadian lesbian couple has taken their known sperm donor to court after he began to visit more often then they had agreed and to refer to the child as his son. Killian Melloy’s article at the Edge is also interesting because of what it tells us about the differences in donor laws in Canada and the U.S. Canadian law does not permit men to be paid for sperm donations, for example, so all but one of the nation’s sperm banks have closed. This means more lesbian couples use known donors.
- Sex & the City star Cynthia Nixon helped the ACLU of Florida kick off its campaign against the state’s ban on adoption by gay men and lesbians.
Personal Stories
- The Iowa Telegraph-Herald (via AP) has a nice story about lesbian moms Jeanne and Sheri Patton, who were the first same-sex couple to get married in the main sanctuary of First Christian Church in Des Moines. Jeanne mentions that ruling to permit marriage for same-sex couples did not authorize a new interpretation of the Iowa code to allow non-biological mothers married to biological mothers to put their names on their children’s birth certificates. That should be changed, of course—but most LGBT legal organizations recommend that non-bio mothers still get an adoption or court order for traveling out of state. (In the epic custody case of Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller, Jenkins did not do a second-parent adoption of their daughter, because under Vermont law, the women’s civil union gave her parental rights. She had to fight for those rights when the state of Virginia got involved.)
- Utah state Rep. Christine Johnson of Salt Lake City, and an out lesbian, is 16 weeks pregnant as the surrogate for two gay male friends.
- Tulsa World profiled lesbian moms Liz and Stephanie Liz Ingersoll and gay dad Brian Timms. The writer, Matt Gleason, did feel the need to quote Rep. Sally Kern (R-OK) about her negative views on same-sex parents, but overall this is a very positive article, despite the fact that Oklahoma doesn’t have an LGBT-friendly reputation.Gleason does stumble a bit over the terminology, saying, “Bella calls Liz Ingersoll, her birth mother, ‘Mom’ and Liz’s wife Stephanie Ingersoll ‘Mama.'” If nothing else, “non-birth mother” should be used in parallel with “birth mother.” Still, Gleason is good about calling them both mothers and parents elsewhere in the article.
- This could go under the “Politics and Law” heading as well, but I’ll put it here since it takes a very personal angle: Joan Garry’s piece on the failure of New Jersey to enact marriage equality is worth a read. You’ve heard the arguments before, but she puts them well:
[Our children] know that we have been discriminated against — that the institution of marriage (the pursuit-of-happiness thing in the Constitution) is being denied to us. And they don’t like it one little bit.
They shouldn’t. Because our second class citizenship puts them at risk. All children deserve the right to insurance coverage, social security, emergency care and inheritance rights no matter who their parents are. You don’t get these for your kids when you are just ‘shacking up.’ They come with a license.
Books and Media
- The Australia television show Play School is under fire for showing (gasp!) a girl who has two moms and said (horrors!) “My mums are taking me and my friend Meryn to an amusement park.” Communications Minister Daryl Williams “said it was inappropriate for a pre-school show to feature a lesbian couple.” Kudos to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s head of children’s television, Claire Henderson, who is holding firm in her desire to represent all Australian children.
- Publisher’s Weekly has a Q&A with young adult author Julie Anne Peters about her new book, By The Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead
, about a bullied student considering suicide.
- Trans Youth Family Allies reports that several TYFA families will be featured on the Tyra Banks Show on January 27, 2010, 4 p.m. ET, CW Network
Sports
- WNBA MVP Sheryl Swoopes, who was cut from the league’s Seattle Storm last season, will play in Greece for the remainder of their league season. She and partner Alisa Scott are raising a son.
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