Court Cases
- The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today to uphold a lower-court ruling and demand the Louisiana Registrar of Vital Statistics respect a New York adoption by a same-sex couple of a Louisiana-born baby boy. Lambda Legal represented gay dads Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith in their quest to have Louisiana issue a new birth certificate identifying both of them as the boy’s parents, in part so Smith could add his son to his health insurance.
- Lambda Legal also argued in front of the the New York State Court of Appeals on behalf of a non-biological mother after a lower court denied her right to seek custody and visitation with, and provide financial support to the child she has parented with her former same-sex partner. (Yes, we’re still arguing this sort of thing in New York—a state that, marriage equality aside, is one of the most progressive in terms of LGBT rights. Sigh.)
- The Florida Department of Children & Families appealed the adoption of an infant relative by Vanessa Alenier, a lesbian from Hollywood, Florida. Last month a state circuit judge allowed the adoption, the third one that lower court judges have permitted to gay men and lesbians, despite state law banning them from adopting. Florida, unlike New York, has never had any pretense of being LGBT-friendly. (I’m talking government here, not Gay Days at Disney and Key West vacations.) Still, someday someone is going to wake up and realize that taking children away from loving, capable parents—and in many cases, the only parents they have ever known—is not in their best interests. Grrr.
Politics
- The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington has transferred its entire foster-care program to another provider, the National Center for Children and Families, citing fears that the District’s new marriage equality law would require it to license same-sex couples. Nancy Polikoff several months ago pointed out that this is a red herring: “For more than 30 years it has been unlawful to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and marital status in the provision of services in the District of Columbia. Catholic Charities operates in a discriminatory manner because no one has challenged them.” Marriage equality wouldn’t change that.
- E. Denise Simmons, the first openly lesbian African-American mayor in the country, just finished her term as mayor of Cambridge, Mass., and has announced she will run for the State Senate seat vacated by Sen. Anthony D. Galluccio. Simmons is also the mother of four and grandmother of three, and is raising her grandchildren. She married her partner Mattie B. Hayes last August.
- Judge Sylvia Pressler, who issued one of the first rulings for a second-parent adoption, and who in a separate ruling held that girls must be allowed to play Little League, died at age 75.
Science
- Gay men may play an important evolutionary role, as “super uncles” who “can enhance the survival prospects of their young kin,” according to evolutionary psychologists at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. Brett Berk, author of The Gay Uncle’s Guide to Parenting,
says “I told you so.” (And while gay men are now also increasingly becoming parents as well as uncles, I think this is an important study to debunk the idea that gay men should be kept far away from children.)
Personal Stories
- Paige Schilt at Bilerico describes taking her son Waylon to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change conference. A good read for any of us who have tried to mix childtending with professional duties.
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