Here are a few of the stories I haven’t covered elsewhere, including good news from Michigan and some cautious moves forward in Europe.
- The Michigan Appeals Court ruled that family court judges may grant second-parent adoptions to same-sex couples. The ruling came in another one of those awful cases in which a bio mom was trying to keep a child from her non-bio mom after the parents broke up. She attempted to void their second-parent adoption—an attempt that this ruling nixed.
- Switzerland’ National Council voted to allow same-sex couples to adopt—but only to adopt any legal children that their partners had before the start of their relationship. (Gay men and lesbians may already adopt as individuals.) The measure must now go to the country’s Council of States.
- Germany’s highest court reviewed the question of joint adoption by same-sex couples. As in Switzerland, they may already adopt as individuals. They may also adopt the biological child of a same-sex partner, but not a partner’s adopted child. as Der Spiegel explains (in English). The newsmagazine also has a nice profile of the lesbian family that brought the case. Stephanie Gerlach of Rainbow Family News offers “Vorsichtiges Prost” (Cautious Cheers) about the outcome.
- A British Columbia appeals court ruled that children created through donor insemination have no legal right to know the identities of their donors. The woman who brought the case is appealing it further, to the Supreme Court of Canada.
- Nikki Weiss and Jill Goldstein, the lesbian moms featured in Showtime’s The Real L Word, were also featured in the Advocate’s “A Day In Gay America.”
- The U.K.’s Guardian newspaper reports on two gay dads who have been foster parents to a number of special-needs children. (Via Queerty.)
