LGBT Parenting Roundup

Opinion

• The New York Times asks “Who’s on the Family Tree?” and answers, “Now It’s Complicated,” in an article notable for including both same-sex couples and non-traditional opposite-sex couples.
• Joan Oliver Emmer, a straight ally in New Jersey, offers her opinion on “Why marriage equality is good for my kids…and yours.”
• Janice D’Arcy of the Washington Post writes about “Gay parenting as, well, parenting.”

Politics and Law

• California’s Protection of Parent-Child Relationships Act, AB 1349, which clarifies that courts can consider the relationship between a child and his or her biological and non-biological parents when they are asked to determine who the child’s legal parents are, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 14.
• Liechtenstein has a new law giving registered same-sex couples many of the same rights and protections as married opposite-sex couples—notable because it is one of the few instances anywhere of voters, not legislators or courts, extending these rights. The law still withholds equal adoption rights from same-sex couples, however.
• Nancy Polikoff reports on the child visitation case of former partners Julie Rowell and Julie Smith. They became parents while still a couple and raised the child together for five years. An Ohio trial court had granted Rowell, the nonbiological mother, temporary visitation, which Smith refused to allow. The trial judge held her in contempt of court, but an Ohio appeals court overturned that ruling, stating that the trial court, in Polikoff’s words, “lacked the authority (and therefore the subject matter jurisdiction) to issue a temporary visitation order to a non-parent unless there was pending an action for dissolution of a marriage or child support.”
• Outfront Colorado reports on the story of lesbian mom Wendy Alfredsen. Wendy and her former partner, Lena Alfredsen, had each adopted one of two biological sisters in 2004, before the state recognized second-parent adoptions. The women later broke up, and Lena fled the country in 2009 with their youngest daughter. Wendy has also written more about the case at her Facebook page.

Miscellaneous

• Despite legal hurdles, more and more same-sex couples are adopting children, according to U.S. Census data. (Via the New York Times.)
• If you’re a same-sex couple living in London, Lambeth Council wants you to consider becoming a foster parent.
• The University of California-Berkeley’s News Center has an article on Rafael Colonna, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology, who has been studying the various parental titles gay and lesbian parents choose.
• The Chicago Tribune profiles single lesbian mom Carrie Kaufman, who also blogs at The Gay Mom.