Fran and Anna Simon were the first same-sex couple in Colorado to get a civil union in 2013 and the first in Denver to get a marriage license in 2014. For Pride, they spoke with the City of Denver’s “I Am Denver” project about their family, their activism, and the protections LGBTQ families still need. Watch the video here.
A week after two county commissioners asked a local Pennsylvania library to remove a Pride Month display of children’s books from its children’s wing, community members showed overwhelming support of the display at a county meeting.
In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has just ruled in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia in favor of a faith-based foster care agency that refused to contract with same-sex parents. While this is not the win we might have wanted, it is a narrow loss that one LGBTQ legal expert is still calling “a huge victory.”
Maine has become the 10th state to allow LGBTQ couples, regardless of gender or genetic connection to their children, to establish legal parentage with an easy, free form that can be completed at the hospital right after a child’s birth. This form, unlike a birth certificate, is equivalent to a court decree.
Two of the three commissioners in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, have asked a local library to remove from the children’s wing a Pride Month display featuring several LGBTQ-inclusive picture books. Many others in the community are rallying in support of the books.
Yesterday, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont (D) signed the Connecticut Parentage Act (CPA), which better protects all children, regardless of the circumstances of their birth or the marital status, gender, or sexual orientation of their parents, and gives nonbiological/nongestational parents a simpler, faster way to establish legal parentage.
A federal bill has just been reintroduced that would prohibit discrimination in foster care and adoption on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or religion. The John Lewis Every Child Deserves a Family Act (ECDF) is named for the civil rights leader and congressman who was an original co-sponsor the previous six times the bill was introduced. Might it pass this seventh time through Congress?
The Connecticut Senate last night unanimously passed the Connecticut Parentage Act (CPA), landmark legislation to update the state’s laws and better protect all children, regardless of the circumstances of their birth or the marital status, gender, or sexual orientation of their parents. Among other things, it gives nonbiological/nongestational parents a simpler way to establish a legal parent-child relationship, without a home study or court hearing. The bill passed the House last month and now goes to Governor Ned Lamont (D) for signing.
In a significant victory for equality this week, the U.S. State Department has ended a policy that had denied birthright citizenship to children born abroad to married same-sex parents born abroad if the U.S. citizen parent was not biologically related. This also ends years of uncertainty for at least one two-mom couple who have been fighting for their child’s citizenship.
Today, May 17, is the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (IDAHOTB). Why this date? And what two other key events in the history of civil rights also happened on this day?
