Let’s start the week with a roundup. Politics and Law Iceland’s Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir and her partner, Jonina Leosdottir, transformed their civil union into a marriage Sunday as the country’s marriage equality law went into effect. Sigurdardottir has two grown sons from a previous marriage. A Wisconsin appeals court ruled that a woman seeking
The U.S. Labor Department clarified that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) gives an employee who assumes the role of caring for a child the parental right to family leave—regardless of the legal or biological relationship. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at a State Department event commemorating Pride Month, and equated LGBT rights
Mombian is my first home for parenting-related matters, but I have also been writing on LGBT issues elsewhere. Here are a few pieces I’ve done round and about that may be of interest to some of you: First, a couple that do touch on parenting: “Homosexuality, Porn, and the Classroom“: Children of same-sex couples should
Politics and Law The Labor Department will expand its interpretation of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to allow non-legal, non-biological parents to take leave to care for the legal children of a same-sex partner. Labor won’t officially announce the news until Wednesday, so stay tuned for further details. The AP reported that the
Closing arguments in the Prop 8 trial dominated the LGBT news this week. Here are a few selections from the many channels that covered it: In “Fear v. Equality,” Lisa Keen reports on the closing from the courtroom. Chris Geidner offers excellent analysis at Metro Weekly as well. The New York Times also covered it,
Yes, that’s right. During closing arguments for the Prop 8 trial in California, defense attorney Charles Cooper said: I really think the state’s main concern or certainly among the state’s main concerns in regulating marriage, in seeking to channel naturally procreative sexual conduct into stable and enduring unions is to minimize what I would call
Today is Loving Day, a commemoration of the Loving vs. Virginia U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage, and a day that “fights racial prejudice through education and builds multicultural community.” TIME has a good article with more on the case and its impact, and notes we now have a president who is himself
The State Department announced it will now allow transgender people to receive a passport reflecting their new legal gender without requiring gender reassignment surgery. Certification from an attending medical physician that the person has undergone appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition is sufficient. The State Department also issued a proclamation in honor of LGBT Pride
Two French gay dads are having difficulties bringing home their twins, born through a surrogate in India. France does not allow surrogacy, and the French consulate is refusing to transfer the twins’ names to the French birth registry, a necessary step before they can obtain passports. A gay Israeli couple had similar problems last month.
President Obama extended certain benefits to the domestic partners of federal employees that are available to the opposite-sex spouses of employees. They do not include health insurance or retirement benefits, however. You’ve probably heard by now that President Obama has issued a proclamation for Pride Month. Here’s my more in-depth piece looking at how his
