A motley assortment for our motley families:
Personal Profiles
- The Annapolis Capital profiled lesbian moms Melanie Morris and Angela Delano on Mother’s Day. It’s a run-of-the-mill profile, as such things go—but when commenters objected to the piece, editor and publisher Tom Marquardt almost published an apology for running it. His staff convinced him not to, but his draft leaked. Uproar ensued, and even made the pages of the Washington Post. Sigh.
- DelawareOnline speaks with several older and adult children of LGBTQ parents about their families, marriage equality in Delaware, and their experiences with COLAGE, the national organization for people with LGBTQ parents.
- Vikki at Up Popped a Fox shares her son’s reaction to the pending Minnesota ballot on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex couples from marriage. Gives me hope.
Family Creation
- Lavender Luz at BlogHer is hosting a blog carnival on “The Dollars and $ense of Family Building.” She asks, “What does it mean that money has to change hands in order to bring a child into your family? What role can finances play in determining which path people take and how far that path goes?” I’m thinking many of us lesbian moms have a few thoughts on the matter. If you want to contribute, submit a post here.
Politics and Law
- Washington State has enacted a version of the Uniform Parentage Act. Among other things, explains lawyer Nancy Polikoff, the new law “explicitly encompasses registered domestic partners in all the provisions that are applicable to spouses,” and “persons in a domestic partnership are both presumed the parents of a child born to one of them. And ‘a person is presumed to be the parent of a child if, for the first two years of the child’s life, the person resided in the same household with the child and openly held out the child as his or her own.'”
- A Louisiana House panel deferred a bill that would have allowed same-sex couples to adopt in the state. (Thanks for the tip, Stephanie!)
- Now In Gay Chicago profiled Illinois state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, the lesbian mom of three, who shared her views on attempts to allow private adoption agencies to refuse their services to same-sex couples.
- A committee of the South Australia parliament has recommended changes to existing law to remove discrimination against lesbian and gay parents, including legal parentage rights for non-bio mothers, access to reproductive technology, and the same adoption rights as opposite-sex couples.
Entertainment
- Rainbow Rumpus, the online magazine for kids and teens with LGBT parents, has launched a free series of downloadable books “designed to fight bullying and promote acceptance. Each book tells a story about a child with lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender parents, and gives parents and teachers tools for talking about family diversity.”
Research Request
- Dr. Roger Mills-Koonce, a research scientist at the Center for Developmental Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is seeking “to recruit a sample of lesbian mothers and gay fathers who are willing to participate in future research on parenting behaviors and family functioning in households headed by one or two lesbian mothers or gay fathers.” If you are interested, you may find further information and a short survey here.