Several court cases involving same-sex parents could be helped by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling—but the cases also underscore the obstacles we are still facing and suggest some needed actions for all of us to take.
A new coloring book for all ages celebrates last January’s Women’s March—and includes several queer families and individuals among the many diverse people in its pages.
In a major win for LGBTQ families, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday overturned an Arkansas Supreme Court ruling and said both parents in a same-sex couple have the right to be on their children’s birth certificates.
The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that a nonbiological mother is not entitled to be seen as a parent, even though she was married to the biological mother, they planned the child together, and both of their names were on the child’s birth certificate. It also said that the U.S. Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling in Obergefell has nothing to do with parenting statutes.
Best wishes today to all who identify as fathers, have or had fathers, or use Father’s Day to celebrate any parent, donor, or other important person in your family! Here’s a roundup of some dad stories for your special day.
The governor of Texas has added his state to the list of those that allow child placement agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ, Jewish, Muslim, single, divorced, or other prospective parents based on the agency’s “sincerely held religious beliefs.” This will serve to limit the number of homes available to children in need. The new law will also permit LGBTQ youth to be sent to widely discredited “conversion therapy” and allow agencies to refuse to refer people to medically appropriate reproductive health services.
A new report from a major philanthropic foundation looks at “state trends in child well-being.” Families with LGBTQ members, however, will likely want to cross-reference it with some LGBTQ-specific studies if they want to determine the best state for them.
This wasn’t the Pride Month I was looking forward to. I hoped we would be celebrating gains built on marriage equality, not battling to stop religious-exemption laws that could exclude us from parenting and limit homes for children who need them. I hoped we would be celebrating a growing understanding of transgender people, not trying to stop the same kind of bathroom bills for which North Carolina has been widely criticized. I hoped we wouldn’t still have to fight for the right of both same-sex parents to be on our children’s birth certificates.
I wrote this last year for my newspaper column, shortly after the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 mostly LatinX, LGBTQ young people. One year later, to #HonorThemWithAction, I thought I should post it here.
When I learned of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, my own son was in elementary school, and I was shaken to the core. He is in middle school now, and the Orlando massacre has shaken me again. The victims this time were not young children—but they were all someone’s children.
A court in Mississippi has not only said a nonbiological mother has no parental rights over the child she helped to plan for, support, and raise with her ex-spouse, but that their anonymous sperm donor does. The mom, however, is fighting back.
