A few articles for your reading pleasure this week, including two at the end that remind us how not to behave as lesbian moms.
- Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post reflects on her own snap judgments and the adoption story of two gay men.
- The American Foundation for Equal Rights (the folks leading the fight to overturn California’s Prop 8) profiles Shannan Seiter and Monica Butler of Medford, Oregon, and their five children.
- Australian finance minister Penny Wong (Labor), a lesbian mom, argues in favor of marriage and parenting for gay people in the latest SALife magazine. Senator Nick Minchin (Liberal) argues against her. The full article is only for subscribers, but The Australian newspaper has excerpts. (And if you haven’t seen this video of Wong defending her family last May, go watch.)
- The New York Times summarizes many of the legal obstacles faced by same-sex parents.
- Tech Sgt. Erwynn Umali and Will Behrens were the first same-sex couple to have a union on a U.S. military base. Both have two children from previous marriages. Slate reports on their nuptials, including the vows they took to each others’ children.
- Laura Douglas-Brown of the Georgia Voice rails (as I have railed before) against lesbian bio moms who try to exclude their former partners from custody or visitation with a child they have raised together.
- Speaking of whom, the New York Times has a lengthy piece on the most well-known case of the above, between Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller. Miller and their daughter remain in hiding in Nicaragua. They fled the U.S. to avoid obeying a judge’s order granting Jenkins custody, after Miller had repeatedly refused even visitation to Jenkins. A warrant for her arrest was issued in April 2010. My heart goes out to Jenkins, who has not seen their daughter, now ten, in over three years.
