The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services yesterday granted South Carolina a waiver so that federally funded adoption and foster care agencies in the state may discriminate based on a person’s religion, LGBTQ identity, or other factors that do not harmonize with the religious beliefs that the agency espouses.
“She was the breadwinner of the family,” says Deborah Peace of her spouse, Army Captain Jennifer Peace, in the documentary Transmilitary. Service members like Capt. Peace will find it harder to provide for their families, however, if President Trump’s ban on transgender service members goes into effect. With the U.S. Supreme Court today refusing to delay the ban as it works its way through the courts, these parents and their three children—and many others like them—are at risk.
Congratulations to the LGBTQ parents being sworn into office today and in the following week or so! Here’s a more detailed look at the winners from the more than three dozen queer parents—and one of our kids—who ran this past November.
LGBTQ parents and our children faced significant challenges to equality and inclusion in 2018—but there was still some progress. Here are the highlights of the year, both good and bad.
There’s been more coverage on both coasts of the new free forms that some states have just approved, giving same-sex parents, even when unmarried, legal rights to a child born to one of them, with the force of a court order. Read or watch below!
An appeals court in Kentucky has ruled against a nonbiological mother seeking joint custody and visitation of the child she was raising with her former partner, even though a lower court had found both women to have equal parental rights. The women were unmarried—and the case raises troubling concerns for unmarried same-sex parents.
A simple, free form that gives both parents, regardless of gender, legal parentage of a child born to one of them, with the force of a court decree? Such a thing exists in a small but growing number of states, as the Associated Press recently reported. That’s terrific progress—but there’s still a long way to go before it’s a widespread option for securing parentage.
Yesterday’s election saw the first openly gay man—and gay dad—to win a governorship, the first lesbian mom to win election to Congress, and the first person with LGBTQ parents to win state or federal office.
Go vote! Now. Or after the kids are at school. Or when you pick them up, so they can come, too. Or on your way to work, from work, or on your lunch hour. Your vote matters because you matter.
When are you voting tomorrow? Do you have a plan? This could be one of the most critical elections in our lifetimes in terms of its impact on LGBTQ equality, reproductive rights, gun control, healthcare, education, immigration, separation of church and state, and so much more. We can’t sit this one out.
