Here are some of the LGBT parent happenings over the past few weeks while we’ve been celebrating the holidays.
Personal Stories
- San Francisco couple Kevin Paulson and Brian Fisher had gone through a long process to qualify as foster parents — yet came up against bias in the foster care system and were not allowed to keep the triplets they’d been fostering, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. They eventually fostered and adopted two others. While I hope things have changed in the 10 years since their first experience with the system, their story underlines why we need the Every Child Deserves a Family Act.
- Liz and Nadia Harris, two lesbian moms in Connecticut, welcomed quintuplets in October. Read more and see photos and video of the family at Elixher.
- Garon Wade relates “The Funniest Things Strangers Said to Us After We Adopted Our Dude.” I’m sure many of us can relate.
- Alexis Taborda, a transgender man, and Karen Bruselario, a transgender woman, wed in Argentina — the first wedding in the country in which the groom was pregnant, reports Raw Story.
- And in Japan, the Supreme Court ruled that a toddler born to a transgender man and his wife through artificial insemination is their legal child, reports LGBTQ Nation.
- Molly Reynolds over at HuffPo writes about “What Gay Families Can Teach the Duck Dynasty Dude,” and in the process shows us what it means to be an LGBT ally.
Politics and Law
- The Pope said in a recent speech, “How can we proclaim Christ to a generation that is changing? We must be careful not to administer a vaccine against faith to them. I remember the case of a very sad little girl who finally confided to her teacher the reason for her state of mind: ‘My mother’s girlfriend doesn’t like me,'” the LA Times reports. Points for effort, but his choice of supporting examples needs work. What about the more frequent case of “My mother’s girlfriend wants to adopt me and marry my mother, but can’t, because it’s illegal and forbidden by my church?”
- Houston Mayor Annise Parker and her partner Kathy Hubbard are planning to marry this month. The couple has raised four children, including one whom they found homeless after his grandparents had kicked him out because he was gay.
- Lesbian mom, advocate, and Alaska Air National Guard veteran Victoria Green wrote in Politico about her encounter with Lisa Murkowski, U.S. Senator from Alaska, and why she feels Murkowski is a strong voice for LGBT families in Washington. Green writes, “In announcing her decision to support same-sex marriage, she [Murkowski] cited being impacted by meeting our family.” Murkowski, it should be noted, is a Republican.
- Spain looks set to bow to Russian pressure and agree to prevent same-sex couples from adopting children from Russia in order to allow Spanish different-sex couples to continue adopting them.
- The Israeli Knesset approved a bill to give gay male parents equality in tax credits. Currently, only a mother may claim tax credit for a child. (I haven’t looked at the bill, but presumably only one woman in a lesbian couple would be able to claim the credit.)
Parenting Advice
- Psychotherapist Colleen Logan offers “5 Tips for Managing the Logistics of Same-Sex Parenting of Blended Families” at HuffPo.
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