LGBT Parenting Roundup: Memorial Day Edition
A roundup of LGBT-parenting news that I haven’t covered already, for your Memorial Day reading pleasure!
Advocating
Boy Scouts Voting Tomorrow on Gay Ban; Take Action Today
Tomorrow, the Boy Scouts of America will be voting on a new policy that would lift the ban on gay scouts, while still banning gay and lesbian leaders. It’s a step in the right direction, but still an insult to gay scouts who will never be able to become leaders, and to those who have lesbian or gay parents, as I wrote when they first proposed it. Take action today to tell the Boy Scouts to allow gay scouts and leaders.
Thinking of Oklahoma
Tonight, I am thinking of the friends I have whose family and friends live in Moore, Oklahoma. A tornado ripped through and destroyed two elementary schools, a hospital, and unnamed other buildings earlier today. The latest numbers from MSNBC say that seven elementary school students are among the dead, and another 30 are unaccounted for.
Your Monday “Arrgh”: Judge Orders Lesbian Mom’s Partner to Move Out Because They’re Not Married
A Texas judge has ruled that a lesbian mom’s partner of three years move out, because of a “morality clause” in the mom’s divorce papers (from a previous opposite-sex marriage). The clause requires that no one she has a non-marital “dating or intimate relationship” with may stay in the home after 9 p.m. if the children are present, reports the Dallas Voice. And of course, same-sex couples are forbidden by law to marry or have their marriages recognized in Texas.
Minnesota Proves 13 Is Lucky
Minnesota will today become the 12th state to legalize marriage for same-sex couples—the 13th if one counts the District of Columbia—after the state Senate voted yesterday (May 13, 2013) to pass a marriage equality bill. Lucky 13.
LGBT Parenting Roundup
Here are some of the stories I haven’t posted about separately—and they’re all happy ones this week, so enjoy!
Bill Reintroduced in Congress to Prevent LGBT Discrimination, Give More Children Homes
Over 400,000 children are in foster care in the U.S., with over 100,000 of them eligible for adoption—and yet otherwise qualified LGBT prospective parents still face discrimination and legal restrictions in adoption and foster care. A bill being reintroduced in Congress this week seeks to change that.
Victory for Lesbian Moms in Iowa!
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) must provide an accurate two-parent birth certificate to any child born to married lesbian parents in Iowa. Same-sex couples have been able to marry in Iowa since April 2009—but the IDPH has refused to recognize both members of a same-sex couple as parents of children born to them. They can do so no longer.
11-Year-Old Boy Writes: “Please Don’t Let [My Mom] Get Fired Because She Is Gay”
Joe is an 11-year-old boy who lives with his mom in Pennsylvania. He recently wrote a letter to his member of Congress, asking, “Please don’t let [my mom] get fired because she is gay.”
Binational Lesbian Moms Fight to Keep Family Together
The French National Assembly and a Rhode Island Senate committee each passed a marriage equality bill yesterday, making them likely to become law in both places. The Delaware House also passed one on to the Senate, and the Nevada Senate took the first step towards repealing its constitutional ban on marriage for same-sex couples. Good news. But for Ariana and Diana, two lesbian moms, only a repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and a reform of immigration law will allow them to keep their family together without the risk of deportation.