Catch up on some of the news for and about LGBTQ parents that I haven’t covered already, with family profiles, insights on starting a family, and headlines from around the world.
Family Profiles
- Moms Paige Kennedy-Winston and Danielle Winston spoke with Newsweek about their choice to use a known donor and have their son grow up knowing him.
- Nicola Slawson wrote for the Guardian about her decision to start a family and co-parent with her gay best friend.
Family Advice and Insights
- IN Magazine writes about “Gay Parenting: 25 Questions To Ask Your Partner Before Having Kids.” These questions feel like good follow-ups to my “8 Tips for Queer People Starting the Journey to Parenthood” (and if you want even more questions to ponder, along with helpful advice, check out some of the titles I mention in “Recent LGBTQ Parenting Books: Which Ones Are Right for You?“)
- Psychologist Michael Radkowsky offers advice in the Washington Blade to a man who wants kids, but his partner doesn’t.
- Good Housekeeping reports on “bird nesting” arrangements of divorced/separated parents, where the children remain in a single home, and the parents move between that one and another. They cite Abbie Goldberg, a professor of psychology at Clark University and one of the leading researchers on LGBTQ and adoptive families, who has found that same-sex parents were more likely than different-sex ones to “bird nest” or use other nontraditional co-parenting arrangements. ”This likely reflects in part their lesser likelihood of conforming to gender norms related to how post-divorce co-parenting is supposed to go,” Goldberg said.
Politics and Law
- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is continuing to push for marriage equality despite opposition from the Orthodox Church and others, reports the Guardian. His primary reason, he said, is to provide legal protections for children with same-sex parents: “I don’t think anyone doubts this reality: that homosexual couples have children and these children are not going to stop existing, they are not going to vanish. But these children do not have equal rights.” Mitsotakis remains opposed to legalizing surrogacy, however. (Readers in the U.S. should also note that same-sex couples here should do more than just marry to secure their children’s legal ties to both parents; see “LGBTQ Paths to Parentage Security,” a guide from GLAD and myself, for more details.)
- Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled unanimously that same-sex couples may adopt children, reports the Washington Blade.
- Kaye Nicholson, a gay mom and the chief executive designate of Liberate Jersey, an equality and diversity charity of the Channel Islands (not the U.S. state), spoke with the island’s Council of Ministers in support of legislation proposed in December that would allow both same-sex parents to be registered on their children’s birth certificates, reports the Jersey Evening Post.
- Agence France Presse, via Barron’s, offers an overview of “Same-sex Parenting Rights Worldwide” (though for adoption, the maps at Equaldex are more comprehensive).