We’ve got lots of international news this week, along with reflections by grown children of same-sex parents, and more! Pull up a chair and have a read.
Politics and Law
- Same-sex couples can now adopt anywhere in Australia, with the Northern Territory finally amending its law so they can do so.
- Finland’s Parliament approved a citizens’ initiative to recognize both women in same-sex partnerships as mothers from the moment their child is born. It is expected to go into effect next spring.
- In the U.S., Gov. Nathan Deal of Georgia (R) signed a bill updating the state’s adoption law, “after he joined a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers in killing proposed changes that would have allowed adoptions by same-sex couples to be denied on religious grounds,” the Washington Blade reports. At the same time, a separate bill, SB 375, passed the Georgia Senate on Feb. 23 and would allow child service agencies to reject LGBTQ prospective parents or others or to act in ways not in the best interests of LGBTQ youth in care, because of the agencies’ religious beliefs.
- The city of Philadelphia has stopped two faith-based agencies from making new placements of foster children, pending an inquiry into their reported discrimination against LGBTQ people, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.
And if you want to get your policy wonk on:
- Professor Kees Waaldijk of Leiden Law School has released a report on “Extending rights, responsibilities and status to same-sex families: Trends across Europe.” It looks at data from a new interactive legal database covering 21 of the 31 European Economic Area (EEA) countries and identifies a growing trend in the formal recognition of same-sex partnerships and in “the substantive rights and responsibilities available to same-sex partners (including the rights of same-sex parents).”
- Claire Horner, assistant professor in the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine, has written a nice two-part series on law, policy, and parenthood. She writes, “Many of our familial laws were written in an antiquated context of parentage, in which there were primarily married mothers and fathers giving birth to children without the assistance of reproductive technologies. Now that we have separated the genetic, gestational, and intended roles of parenthood, where they were once undivided, laws that assume that they still coalesce seem to fall short.” Read Part One and Part Two.
Family Profiles
- Elizabeth Elford at HuffPo tells us “How Growing Up With A Mom In A Secret Lesbian Relationship Shaped My Life.”
- Katie Southern at Medium, who grew up with two moms, shares “A Queer Cultural Display” and asserts, “Despite the movement to ‘mainstream’ queer couples and families, we retain a culture all our own.”
- Vice’s Broadly profiles two lesbian couples vlogging about their TTC (trying to conceive) journeys, one from Australia and the other from New Zealand, and shows the importance of community support.
Family Creation
- Diva magazine points us to two videos by Veerle Provoost, professor and postdoctoral researcher at the Bioethics Institute of Ghent University, in which she talks about donor conception, the importance (or not) of genetic ties, changing definitions of family, and more.
