More stories I haven’t covered earlier, including a terrific piece by the mother of a sperm donor; a newly out lesbian mom with a major university sports program; and yet more research showing sexual orientation of parents doesn’t negatively impact children.
Family Profiles and Advice
- First, go read this lovely piece by the mother of a sperm donor to a lesbian couple. She considers the women’s children her grandchildren, even though her son doesn’t consider himself the father—and everyone in the family is fine with that. A great piece on the many ways we create family today.
- Parenting site KidsInTheHouse.com has launched a channel for LGBT parents and parents of LGBT children, with short videos from gay and straight parents, celebrities, and childcare and health professionals, the Advocate reports.
- Claire McCarthy, a pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital, explains “Why — and How — Parents Need To Talk To Their Kids About Same-Sex Relationships.” A nice piece by an ally.
Celebrities
- Rutgers University Athletic Director Julie Hermann has come out in public with a line in her official bio on the school’s Web site: “Hermann and her partner Dr. Leslie Danehy are the proud parents of a seven-year-old son, Aidan.”
- Denver Nuggets basketball player Kenneth Faried, who has two moms, spoke on the red carpet of the ESPY Awards about being the NBA’s first Athlete Ally and supporting openly gay NBA player Jason Collins.
Research
- Dr. Abbie Goldberg has followed up her recent paper on adoptive children of same-sex parents with another one, this time showing that “Early bonding patterns between parents and their adopted children do not differ between same-sex and different-sex couples,” according to a press release from the Williams Institute at UCLA. What did play a role in the bonding was “how sudden or expected the transition to parenthood was; how entitled the adoptive parents felt as parents (i.e., how ready they were to ‘claim’ the child as theirs), and the legal security of the placement (i.e., the perceived likelihood that it would be permanent).”
- News seems to have “broken” this week about a new Australian study on same-sex parents; I covered it at the beginning of June, so please go have a look back if you missed it.
Politics and Law
- TODAY profiles two lesbian mom couples who are fighting for second-parent adoptions, highlighting the fact that even after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), same-sex parents still do not have full protections for our families (as I noted Monday).
- Nevada passed a new law expanding surrogacy and assisted reproduction rights to same-sex and other legally unmarried couples. In particular, “a person who consents to assisted reproduction, with the intent of being a parent of the resulting child is a legal parent of that child.” That means all you non-bio parents in the state.
- And in a win for non-bio gay dads, a court in Canada has ruled that the former partner of a biological dad is a legal father of the child the men decided to create and were raising together.
