For your Friday enjoyment—a few stories from round and about on the adventure that is LGBTQ parenting. Happy almost-weekend, all!
Politics and Law
- The Kentucky judge who earlier this year tried to recuse himself from any adoption cases involving same-sex parents, has stepped down after the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission filed ethics charges against him. The charges allege he violated rules including ones that require judges to “comply with the law” and “act in ways that promote public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary,” while not showing bias on the basis of sexual orientation, among other factors, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader.
- A New York court will soon hear a contentious child custody case involving a same-sex former couple. The women planned to adopt a child from Ethiopia, but had to have only one of them do the paperwork because of concerns that the country would not allow a same-sex couple to adopt jointly. During the process, the women broke up. Now the legal mother, Circe Hamilton, is claiming her former partner, Kelly Gunn, never had a relationship with the child, and should not receive any custody. Gunn claims she was a mother in all ways but legally. The Advocate has more details on this difficult case, which is attracting some heavy-hitting legal firepower: Roberta Kaplan, who successfully argued on behalf of Edie Windsor in the groundbreaking 2013 marriage equality case, is representing Gunn.
- As Australians vote on marriage equality, a review of three decades of peer-reviewed research has concluded (just like similar reviews in the U.S.) that children of same-sex parents do just as well as children of different-sex parents. No surprise for readers here, but a good resource to counter anti-equality advocates who claim children do better when raised by parents born with opposite genitalia.
Education
- I usually cover more about LGBTQ parents than about parents of LGBTQ children (except when they overlap), because I’m only one person and I need to have time for my own family. Still, I make exceptions, and one is for “What I Told Betsy DeVos as the Mother of a Transgender Girl,” a Medium piece by Debi Jackson. Debi’s child Avery graced the cover of National Geographic’s issue on gender last year.
Family Creation
- It’s National Adoption Month, and Family Equality is celebrating with a host of stories and resources (as am I).
- Out and About Nashville profiles foster care agency Monroe Harding, which is a member of Nashville’s LGBT Chamber, in order to “reach out to potential LGBTQI foster parents” and “provide services for our young people who identify as LGBTQI.”
Entertainment
- The Disney Channel introduced its first ongoing LGBTQ character. In Andi Mack, the titular character’s friend Cyrus tells her he has a crush on the same boy she does, the beginning of what will be a multi-episode coming-out arc for the character. Disney has dipped its toe into LGBTQ waters before, with one episode of Good Luck Charlie featuring a two-mom couple in 2013 (shortly before the series ended), and one episode of Disney Junior show Doc McStuffins featuring a two-mom couple earlier this year.
- Actor Mandy Moore (This Is Us) told the U.K.’s Byrdie, “I’ve never really talked about this, but my parents are divorced. My mother left my father for a woman. And both of my two brothers are gay.” Her mother left her father for a woman, and now her family members are “exactly where they should be. Everyone’s so much happier, richer and more fulfilled, being their authentic selves.”
- Finally, Lego’s new “Women of NASA” set includes queer astronaut, physicist, and entrepreneur Sally Ride as well as astronomer and educator Nancy Grace Roman, computer scientist and entrepreneur Margaret Hamilton, and astronaut, physician, and engineer Mae Jemison—awesome all.
Health
- And not LGBTQ specific, but relevant for many of us: The 2018 Open Enrollment Period for the Health Insurance Marketplace (Obamacare) runs from November 1 to December 15, 2017—a shorter period than in previous years. If you need it, enroll now at Healthcare.gov.
