A miscellany from here and there—have a read!
Politics and Law: U.S.
- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) has launched a “Love Makes A Family” campaign to fight for legalized gestational surrogacy and better protect families that use reproductive technologies. Among other things, the legislation would allow same-sex parents to seek a Judgment of Parentage rather than a second-parent adoption. The judgement, a much cheaper, simpler process (a single court visit), could be completed before the child’s birth and would not require a home study—but as a court judgment, it would be as legally binding as a second-parent adoption. A similar bill failed in the last legislative session.
- A South Dakota Senate committee voted to kill HB 1057, a bill that would have banned transition-related medical care like puberty blockers for transgender minors, even if their parents approved.
- Unfortunately, a similar bill seems to be on the horizon in Ohio.
- Tennessee’s recently passed religious exemption law, which allows discrimination against LGBTQ people and others in adoption and foster care, is “a stain on our state,” writes Ben Lay, a legal observer for the ACLU of Tennessee.
- Unfortunately, Georgia’s considering one, too.
Politics and Law: International
- The Croatia Constitutional Court has decided that same-sex couples have the right to be foster parents just like anyone else. The decision came after the country’s Rainbow Family Association, an advocacy and networking organization, submitted a motion to the court in February 2019, asking for review of the new Foster Care Act, which appeared to exclude “life partners” as foster parents. Same-sex couples cannot marry in Croatia, but may enter into “life partnerships.”
- The Israel Supreme Court ruled that when same-sex couples get a parental order to ensure a child’s legal ties to the non-biological parent, it is not retroactive to the date of the child’s birth as it is with different-sex couples. “The impression left by this ruling is that LGBT families are inferior to ‘normal’ families,” writes Ravit Hecht at Haaretz.
- The Finnish government has announced that all parents will be given the same amount of parental leave, regardless of gender or whether they are biologically connected to their children.
Schools and Education
- The Denver Public School Board voted unanimously to require all district schools to provide at least one all-gender restroom (which could be include one previously used just for faculty), and require staff to use students’ chosen names and pronouns, even if students haven’t legally changed their names or gender.
Celebrity
- Actor and mom Maria Bello (Coyote Ugly, NCIS) has announced she’s engaged to chef Dominique Crenn.
- Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson plays a gay dad on Modern Family—and recently announced that he and husband Justin Mikita (also an actor) are going to become dads in real life.
- British television presenter and dad Phillip Schofield has come out as gay. Among other responses, Jillian Stewart, who made a 2017 documentary about having two moms, wrote these words of encouragement to him, and shared some of her own experience.
