Here’s what’s been happening while we’ve been celebrating Memorial Day and Blogging for LGBT Families Day:
Politics and Law
- “Ex-lesbian” mom Lisa Miller is rumored to have fled the country with the eight-year-old daughter she was supposed to turn over to the girl’s other mom, Janet Jenkins. Jenkins’ attorney Sarah Star said to the Associated Press that a Virginia police officer told her that Miller and the girl flew to San Salvador from Juarez, Mexico. Miller failed to show up in January to transfer custody of the girl to Jenkins, as ordered by a Vermont court, after Miller had refused multiple times to allow Jenkins court-ordered visitation.
- The Texas Supreme Court has refused to review an appeals court ruling that allowed a non-bio mom to seek visitation rights with her daughter, Nancy Polikoff reports. Another appeals court had ruled in a separate case that a non-bio mom had no standing to seek visitation.
- Nancy also pointed out that the U.S. State Department has posted information for GLBT people who want to do international adoptions.
Personal Stories
- If you haven’t seen the picture of Jane Lynch and Lara Embry with their daughter in the couple’s New York Times wedding announcement, you’re missing the adorablest thing you’ll probably see all week. The article’s worth a read, too.
- A mother wrote to the Washington Post’s advice columnist Carolyn Hax asking how to explain to her six-year-old why she didn’t want him going over to the house of a friend who has two moms. “I am not homophobic and have nothing against gay people,” the mother wrote. “I just don’t want my son exposed to this unfamiliar lifestyle at such a young age. I just think he’s too young to understand.” Hax astutely replied, “What is there for him to understand at this stage beyond, two people who love each other have created a home together? . . . I have a hard time believing your son, at 6, isn’t already fully aware that his friend has two mommies/daddies. . . . Kids are open to the world as it’s presented to them; it’s adults who teach them to start filtering it all in arbitrary ways.”
“I am not homophobic and have nothing against gay people,”
I can’t tell you how angry it makes me to hear those words. Wrapping homophobia and hate in a lie doesn’t make it any less. If she has a VALID reason to keep her son home, fine. If she just hates queer folks fine. Those are her choices and she gets to make them. She can love me or hate me, but she doesn’t get to insult my intellegence.
You said it, Amy!
Amy, I couldn’t have said it better. Luckily, the photo and article about Jane Lynch were both awesome and made me feel a little better about the lame woman who wrote to the Washington post.