- Two French gay dads are having difficulties bringing home their twins, born through a surrogate in India. France does not allow surrogacy, and the French consulate is refusing to transfer the twins’ names to the French birth registry, a necessary step before they can obtain passports. A gay Israeli couple had similar problems last month.
- Two days after the publication of new findings from a major study of lesbian families here in the U.S. come the results of a new study of children of lesbian families in the U.K., conducted by the University of Cambridge for Stonewall, the country’s leading LGBT-rights organization. The U.K. study found, “Children reported that they were proud of their parents and felt their families were special, but often faced prejudice at school.”
- Iceland’s parliament approved a bill that will allow single women, same-sex couples, and heterosexual couples whose members both suffer from fertility issues, to use both donor eggs and donor sperm in IVF treatment. Previously, donor eggs could only be used when the sperm came from the father-to-be, and could not be used by single women or lesbian couples.
- The South Australian Parliament’s Social Development Committee will conduct an inquiry into the number, experiences, and challenges of gay and lesbian parents.
- Also in Australia, Sydney MP Clover Moore plans to introduce a private member’s bill to allow same-sex couples to adopt, even though the New South Wales Labor Government has said it will not initiate such legislation.
- And in Victoria, the the Rainbow Families Council has produced a new information pack about same-sex parented families to help early childhood centres, kindergartens, and the parents themselves.
On a lighter note, if you missed my tweet about it: Shoes for your sperm donor. (Or shoes to wear while you’re lugging the cryo tank up the stairs. Your call.)