Here’s the latest roundup of LGBTQ parenting news I haven’t covered elsewhere, with important progress in several countries, sports stars growing their families, and a major win for a queer-led family film!
Family Stories
- The BBC looks at “How ‘family’ is being redefined for the modern world.” Among its key points (which should surprise few readers here): “In study after study, good relationships between parent and child, with warm, responsive parenting, and open communication, were shown to be more important for the children’s wellbeing than the gender, sexual orientation, number and genetic relatedness of the parents, and the way the children are conceived.”
- The first same-sex couple to legally wed in Chile have tied the knot: dads Javier Silva and Jaime Nazar.
- WNBA star and Olympic gold medalist Candace Parker and spouse Anna Petrakova, also a basketball player, welcomed a baby together. Parker already has one daughter from a previous relationship.
- U.K. Olympic gold medalist and boxer Nicola Adams is having a baby with her partner, model Ella Baig. She spoke with Vogue UK about their journey to conception via reciprocal IVF.
Politics and Law
- The High Court of South Africa has ruled that current law discriminates by not recognizing same-sex non-gestational partners as equal parents, and that the law must be changed.
- ABC News (Australia) reports on the push for adoption rights by same-sex couples in Taiwan, after a landmark case in December named a man the legal guardian of a child his husband had adopted before they married, finding it was in the best interests of the child.
- An Irish citizen is asking Ireland’s High Court to overturn the government’s refusal to grant Irish passports to her children who were born in Australia, where she, as the nonbiological parent, was placed on their birth certificate and recognized as a full parent under Australian law, along with her partner, an Australian citizen and the biological parent. (While I don’t want to draw too many parallels with the U.S., since I don’t know much about Australian or Irish law, this is a good time to remind folks not to rely on birth certificates alone.)
- Lucille Kelsall-Knight at The Conversation writes about her conversations with six lesbian parents regarding their experiences accessing healthcare for their adopted children in England.
- Kam Thompson writes in CommonWealth about her struggle to secure parentage rights to the child she and her partner had planned together and were raising before they split up, and why Massachusetts needs to update its outdated parentage laws (a topic near and dear to my heart, too).
Entertainment
- The Mitchells vs. The Machines, a hilarious family film from Sony Pictures Animation and Netflix with a visibly queer protagonist, has won Best Feature at the 2022 Annie Awards of the International Animated Film Society. Actor Abbi Jacobson, who is queer and voiced protagonist Katie Mitchell, also won for Best Voice Acting. The film also scooped up a whole bunch of other awards. (Learn more about the film here.)