Here’s a few of the LGBT parenting stories I haven’t covered elsewhere. Lots of good stuff this week!
- Lesbian mom Jennifer Tyrrell, who was kicked out of her position as den leader of her son’s local Cub Scout chapter because she is a lesbian, delivered over 300,000 signatures from a Change.org petition she started urging the group to change its policies. The Boy Scouts of America had announced the day before that they intend to maintain the policy.
- Lesbian mom and Philippines citizen Jane DeLeon, who is married to American Irma Rodriguez, filed a federal lawsuit to stop her deportation (and the deportation of other same-sex spouses) under the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
- Most of the horror stories of bio parents trying to keep nonbio parents from custody of their children involve lesbians, but as this story shows, gay men are unfortunately not immune from such machinations.
- Emily Hecht-McGowan, an expectant mother, writes at the Advocate about the legal hurdles she and her spouse (and many other lesbian couples) have had to leap on the way to parenthood. Emily is also the director of public policy for the Family Equality Council.
- New Zealand newspaper the Bay of Plenty Times profiled two gay men, Kevin and Ben Haraki-Beckett, who are considering adoption. The article gives insight into the state of laws and sentiments in that country. Alas, the right-wing arguments there seem much the same as those here in the U.S.
- The U.K.’s Sun newspaper profiles partners Kirstie Maguire and Aimee Watson, who met at a support group after each had a stillborn baby. They were each in a relationship with a man at the time; Kirstie had three other children. Now, they are a couple and Aimee is pregnant. (This is a pretty positive article, but readers are cautioned to ignore the appalling male-oriented “I’m turned on by my bisexual girl” headline in the Related Stories box next to it.)
- If you had biological kids with a partner, how did you choose which one of you carried? The Contra Costa Times gives us a look at “How Bay Area lesbian couples choose a birth mother.” (Hint: It usually doesn’t involve “Rock, Paper, Scissors.”)
- Laura Matanah, founder and publisher of Rainbow Rumpus: The Magazine for Youth with LGBT Parents, writes about the similarities between “coming out as LGBT oneself and coming out as the child of a LGBT-headed family.”
- Andrew Kensley of the Coloradoan, a straight dad, writes about explaining conception and same-sex parents to his six-year-old daughter. A nice piece by an ally.
