A roundup of LGBT-parenting news that I haven’t covered already, for your Memorial Day reading pleasure!
- The Boy Scouts of America voted to repeal a ban on gay scouts, but to keep a ban on gay leaders. My previous thoughts on the matter still stand.
- A hearing on legislation that would give equal benefits to gay and lesbian married service members and veterans has been postponed, but you can pop over to Buzzfeed to read sponsor Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s prepared remarks about the bill. I mention this not only because of the servicemember-related holiday this weekend, but also because the bill is named the “Charlie Morgan Military Spouses Equal Treatment Act,” in honor of Chief Warrant Officer 2 Charlie Morgan of the New Hampshire National Guard, a lesbian mom who died of breast cancer in February and was a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
- “Gay Parents Are Changing the World,” writes the Advocate in its profile of comedian Alec Mapa, his filmmaker husband, Jamie Hebert, and their son. I won’t disagree.
- In “An Invitation to Queer Parenting” at HuffPo, Kimberly Dark explains why she has reclaimed the word—and invites us all to do the same.
- The Las Vegas Sun yesterday profiled gay dads Greg Flamer and Fletcher Whitwell, one of the eight couples who filed a lawsuit to repeal the state’s constitutional ban on marriage for same-sex couples. Also yesterday, however, the Nevada Assembly followed the state Senate in approving a bill to repeal the ban—clearing the way for the next legislature and then voters to pass it into law. Whether by lawsuit or legislature, it looks like same-sex couples may soon gain the right to be married in a drive-through chapel by an Elvis impersonator within a few years.
- You may never have heard of Peter Hams, but his moms were the first same-sex couple to get a marriage license in Massachusetts—making them the first couple to do so legally in the United States. He wrote in the Boston Globe about his family and what the occasion meant for them.
- LGBT family law expert Nancy Polikoff analyzes a recent appeals court decision in Florida that maintained a sperm donor is not a parent (good)—but that also reminds us a nonbio mom isn’t one, either (according to Florida law).
- Country singer Chely Wright and her wife, music executive Lauren Blitzer Wright, have welcomed twins, reports People. Congrats to the new moms!
In international news:
- “Enough of the stupidity, the kids are all right,” writes Lou Sweeney bluntly in Australia’s The Age. It’s a wonderfully snarky piece in response to the Australian Christian Lobby’s arguments against marriage equality.
- Portugal’s Parliament has passed a law allowing second-parent adoption for same-sex married couples, but stopped short of giving same-sex couples joint adoption rights, reports LGBTQ Nation.
