Education takes the spotlight this week, along with a number of family profiles. Read on and see what’s new.
Schools and Education
- The Utah Legislature has repealed a state law that prohibited supportive discussions of “homosexuality” in public and charter school curricula and classrooms, Equality Utah reports. Even better, “The legislation passed with bipartisan support by a 27-1 vote in the Senate and a 68-1 vote in the House.” The bill now goes to Governor Gary Herbert (R) for signature. Herbert has opposed marriage equality, but signed a bill prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment and housing.
- Representatives from GLSEN, the National Center for Transgender Equality, and Equality Michigan met with U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, “to relay the concerns and fears of hundreds of thousands of students, educators, and parents who have been affected by the alarming actions of the Trump administration.” GLSEN Executive Director Dr. Eliza Byard said afterwards in a statement, “We ensured that DeVos heard—directly from us—that we will not budge or compromise when it comes to the full support and protection that all of our children, including LGBTQ youth, deserve from this Administration, from the Department of Education and from its Office for Civil Rights.”
- Gavin Grimm, the transgender teen whose lawsuit to use the school bathrooms that match his gender identity was just bumped down from the U.S. Supreme Court to the U.S. Circuit Court, explains why “this fight is bigger than me.”
- A school bus driver in Polk County, Florida, told a second-grader that he and his moms are going to hell because of the moms’ same-sex relationship. The driver has been counseled by her supervisor, and a letter has been placed in her file, but the letter “is not to be construed as disciplinary in nature.”
Media and Representation
- Highlights magazines are following through on their promise of including same-sex parents in their pages. After the February issue of Highlights, their flagship title for ages six to 12, included an image of a two-dad family, the March issue of Hello, for children from birth to age two, has a two-mom family. Slate has the image, along with Editor in Chief Christine French Cully’s explanation of why the image is “thoughtfully ambiguous.” I understand these are new waters for them, and they have many constituents to please—but at the same time, I hope we can get past “thoughtfully ambiguous” to “there’s a same-sex couple and it’s no big deal.”
Family Profiles
- D.C. political paper The Hill profiles Ashley Broadway-Mack, president of the American Military Partners Association, the nation’s largest organization of LGBT military families and their allies, and a mom.
- Popsugar gives us the story of Lindsay Lanciault and Toby Fleischman, a couple who ended up pregnant at the same time. (They’re not the first.)
- Gay Star News, for the U.K.’s LGBT Adoption & Fostering Week, shared the story of Sally and Zoe, who adopted with help from U.K. charity SSAFA, which helps serving and ex members of the U.K. military and their families with numerous issues, including adoption.
- Rev. Dr. Susan Hrostowski and her spouse, Kathy Garner, plaintiffs in the case that struck down Mississippi’s ban on same-sex adoption, will receive the Human Rights Champion Award at the Crescendo Gala, a fundraiser for the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.
