LGBTQ Parenting Roundup: Longform Edition
This roundup is full of thoughtful, mostly longer pieces, including ones about being lesbian, bisexual, and nonbinary parents, and coming out after a heterosexual marriage and kids. Come have a read!
Advocating
New York Bill Would Protect All Children Born Through Assisted Reproduction and Legalize Surrogacy
New York State, where the Stonewall Riots accelerated the LGBTQ rights movement, is in many ways one of the most LGBTQ-friendly states around. Yet the state’s laws do not yet effectively protect families created through assisted reproductive technologies. That could change very soon.
Reintroduced Bill to End Adoption and Foster Care Discrimination Does Much More than Before
For the sixth Congress in a row, the Every Child Deserves a Family Act (ECDF) has been introduced in an attempt to ensure that no child lacks for a home because of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or religion. This year’s version of the bill goes even further, however, offering new protections and resources.
Trump Administration Plans to Allow Discrimination in Adoption and Foster Care: Here’s What You Can Do
It’s only surprising if you weren’t paying attention. The Trump administration let slip last week that they are considering two paths to allowing discrimination against LGBTQ people and others in adoption and foster care, following up on what they’ve intended for a long time.
Memorial Day: Remembering the Fallen
This Memorial Day, may we spare a thought for all those who have given their lives in service to our country, including service members who were LGBTQ.
A Day of Wins: Equality Act Passes House; Taiwan Approves Same-Sex Marriage (but Not Full Adoption Rights)
Not only does today mark the 15th anniversary of the landmark decision that first brought marriage equality to a U.S. state, and the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, but it will now also be known as the day a comprehensive, federal LGBTQ civil rights bill first passed a chamber of the U.S. Congress and the day that Taiwan legalized marriage for same-sex couples—the first country in Asia to do so. Progress to celebrate—but there is further to go, as the Equality Act faces a tougher battle in the Senate, and same-sex couples in Taiwan still will not have equal adoption rights.
Massachusetts Moms Who Were First to Marry Talk About the Trauma
Fifteen years ago today was the first legal wedding of a same-sex couple in the United States—moms Hillary and Julie Goodridge. Now they and their daughter Annie are sharing more about their fight to marry and the stress that it caused on their relationship—stress that caused them to divorce five years later. It’s a sobering tale about the price that progress can have on activists and their families.
Enfamil Ad Features Two-Dad Family
A new ad for Enfamil baby formula features “Zanna Lu’s Dads,” Michael and Tony.
President’s Foster Care Month Proclamation Is a Study in Hypocrisy
I knew President Trump’s National Foster Care Proclamation this year would omit mention of LGBTQ families, in contrast to President Obama’s. I reached a new level of anger at the administration, however, when the proclamation called for “kinship care’ whenever possible—as his administration works to let foster care agencies turn away prospective parents—even kin—if they are LGBTQ.
State Department Wants to Take U.S. Citizenship from One Two-Year-Old Twin with Two Dads
The U.S. State Department seems to be having a contest with the Department of Health and Human Services over which can be more awful to the LGBTQ community. A February federal court decision had ruled that the two-year-old son of two married men, one a U.S. citizen and one an Israeli citizen, must be recognized as a U.S. citizen like his twin brother. The State Department now wants to overturn that ruling.