On parental rights: A Michigan state House committee approved legislation for second-parent adoptions, splitting the vote along party lines. (Do I really need to specify which party voted in favor?) A Montana woman, Barbara Maniaci, is asking the state Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that recognized her former partner as a co-parent […]
Breaking news: Shirley Tan, the lesbian mom who was on the brink of being deported and torn from her 12-year-old sons and her partner of 20 years, may now stay in the U.S. through 2010, the end of this session of Congress. Her reprieve is thanks to California Rep. Jackie Speier and Sen. Diane Feinstein,
(Parenting-related news gets its own roundup around here.) Steve Schmidt, John McCain’s campaign manager, said, “There is a sound conservative argument to be made for same-sex marriage.” (I leave it as a matter of discussion as to whether there is a sound argument for conservatism.) A new poll also shows Republican insiders are almost evenly
This week, Helen and I discuss how marriage equality in Vermont and Iowa affects families with kids, and, being coastal types, ask for ideas about family-friendly tourist attractions in Iowa. We also talk about why this year’s White House Egg Roll broke new ground, and wonder what to do with the three tons of chocolate
Tragedy: GLSEN reports, “An 11-year-old Massachusetts boy, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, hung himself Monday [April 6] after enduring bullying at school, including daily taunts of being gay, despite his mother’s weekly pleas to the school to address the problem. This is at least the fourth suicide of a middle-school aged child linked to bullying this year.”
LGBT families and non-LGBT families alike are participating in this year’s White House Egg Roll. Dustin Kight from the Family Equality Council is liveblogging the event over at Bilerico, bringing us his insights as well as stories from other LGBT families in attendance. Much as the point is really that LGBT families are much like
Twelve-year-old Evann Orleck-Jetter, the daughter of lesbian moms, testified at the public hearings on marriage equality last month before Vermont’s Joint Senate and House Judiciary Committees. Democracy Now! spoke with her a few days ago and reported, “Many legislators later told Evann and her parents that her testimony had moved them to support the bill.”
The White House Egg Roll is coming up on Monday. I wrote last week about the Obama administration’s groundbreaking outreach to LGBT families while also questioning their continued reluctance to grant us full equality. For another perspective (not so different, when you come right down to it), here’s a piece at HuffPo by Alisa Surkis,
Just so you know I meant it: I did indeed make a maple cornbread to celebrate the two great states of Vermont and Iowa. (Click link for recipe.) And it was delicious.
In this week of euphoria over the marriage victories, let’s not forget we still have a long way to go. Today, “a coalition of concerned Virginia citizens” has formed the “Protect Isabella Coalition” to “create awareness of what it labels ‘judicial tyranny’ in the child custody/visitation case involving Miller, Isabella’s biological mother, and Vermonter Janet
