A mixed bag of news this time, with a few big wins, one legislative loss, and two library battles, among other news.
By the book
- Some conservatives in Orange City, Iowa, are citing the usual tired string of religious arguments in petitioning their local public library to ban or segregate “homosexual/transgender promoting materials,” including some children’s books. The library contains 168 books with LBGTQ content out of a collection of 64,000 materials, reports the Des Moines Register. Dan Chibnall, the Iowa Library Association’s president-elect, told the Sioux City Journal that the library has adopted the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) Library Bill of Rights, which says materials should “not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.” And the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom interprets that by stating that the ALA “stringently and unequivocally maintains that libraries and librarians have an obligation to resist efforts that systematically exclude materials dealing with any subject matter, including sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation.” Read this editorial, also from the Des Moines Register, as proof that many in the state do support the ALA’s position. This battle isn’t over yet, but I think it’s never wise to cross a librarian.
- In Texas, another conservative religious group is upset that the Temple Public Library put up displays with LGBT-themed books and informational sheets last June.
Political and legal news
- The Georgia Senate passed a bill that would allow taxpayer-funded child services agencies to refuse to place children with LGBTQ parents, single parents, or any others whose lives conflict with the agencies’ religious beliefs. It would also allow them to discriminate against LGBTQ youth. The bill now goes to the House. Here’s my longer piece on how such religious exemption bills are moving forward in other states—and how you can get involved with a campaign to stop them.
- On a related note, there’s a “Great Need for LGBTQ Foster Parents” in Philadelphia (among other places), and LGBTQ youth (among others) can thrive in their care, as this two-minute video shows.
- In good news this week, the U.S. Supreme Court has let stand an Arizona Supreme Court ruling, McLaughlin v. McLaughlin, which said a woman was the legal parent of the child she and her same-sex spouse conceived through assisted reproduction during their marriage. (Here’s the background for this case.)
- And for the third time in the last five months a New York state appeals court has found that the “presumption of legitimacy” in New York’s family law applies equally to same- and different-sex couples. In other words, a child born during a marriage is presumed to be the two spouses’ child. The case involved a two-mom married couple fighting to keep their daughter’s sperm donor from having parental rights.
- Nebraska officials must pay more than $197,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska in attorney’s fees and costs incurred when the group in 2013 successfully challenged a ban on same-sex foster parents. Although the state argued that it had stopped enforcing the ban, the state Supreme Court still ordered the payment, reports WRAL.
- While not parenting specific, a ruling of the full Second Circuit Court of Appeals will help LGB folks, broadly speaking, including parents. The court found that employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
- The two men who became the first same-sex couple to marry in Baja California, Mexico, have now won an appeals court ruling that will allow them to begin adoption proceedings.
Economics
- NBC Out reports on the high cost of starting a family for same-sex couples. The article covers some of the same ground I did in a piece for The Advocate last year, but they focus mainly on same-sex couples, not LGBTQ parents more broadly. Still, it’s a useful reminder of some of the economics at play for many of us.
Family Profiles
- Neesha Powell at The Establishment writes of “4 Ways Queer And Trans Parents Are Raising Revolutionary Children During The Trump Era.” The title is perhaps overly broad—Powell is really profiling just two parents and their parenting styles—but the article is a nice look at how these two are doing it.