Polly at LesbianDad passed on an urgent request to help counter ultra-right callers on a radio show about the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study. Dr. Nanette Gartrell, the principal investigator of the study, will be interviewed this Monday alongside a guest from the Family Research Council. Dr. Gartrell expects that the FRC will organize many […]
PlanetOut speculates that the LGBT community and their supporters were a determining factor in the recent Democratic recapture of the Senate, as they rallied to defeat Virginia’s proposed constitutional same-sex marriage ban. Opponents of the ban also tended to support Democrat James Webb, who won his seat by a slim margin. LGBT-rights advocates in California
Marriage on the brain this week, I’m afraid. My own will be this Saturday, which, by complete coincidence, is also the third anniversary of the Goodridge decision that legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. If we’re lucky, we’ll get the Leonid meteor shower to provide us with some fireworks. Farther afield, the BBC News yesterday highlighted
The Advocate reports that “two women will be listed as parents on the birth certificate of a baby born this week in New Jersey, one of the first implications of a state supreme court ruling that gives same-sex couples access to the same rights as married couples.” This parentage decision, by a New Jersey family
I was rereading a USA TODAY article from September that reported: “Marriage and parenthood define what’s different about Democratic and Republican districts even more clearly than race, income, education or geography.” Republican representatives, far more than Democrats, come from districts that have high percentages of married people and many children, with Republicans averaging 7,000 more
First, thanks to all of you who have sent me good wishes for my impending nuptials. I’m humbled by your kind thoughts. Our chosen Justice of the Peace e-mailed us some sample vows. She’s a lesbian herself, and understands that we’re celebrating our thirteen years together as much as our new marital status. The vows
Many of us are suffering from a surfeit of politics right now, so I’ll keep this week’s update short. One more victory in the U. S., and a few international items: In a case of death by procedural maneuver, a measure to put a same-sex marriage ban on the 2008 ballot looks unlikely to succeed.
Americans under 30 voted in the largest numbers for midterm elections in at least 20 years, and may have made a difference in the many close races. Young people favored Democrats by 22 points, nearly three times the Democratic margin among other age groups. Some say this indicates a rising Democratic bloc that could be
The surprising thing is not that Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin passed bans on same-sex marriage. Anyone who knew anything about the cultural makeup of those states knew it was going to be a struggle to defeat those measures, albeit one worth fighting. What surprises me is that the bans
At this hour, the Democrats have regained the House, with Nancy Pelosi becoming the first female Speaker. Out lesbian Representative Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin won reelection, although voters in her home state also approved a ban on same-sex marriage. Openly gay Representative Barney Frank won his race Massachusetts, making him the first openly gay congressional
