A lesbian teacher at an all-girls Catholic school in Michigan says she was fired because her pregnancy is “nontraditional.” Thousands have rallied to her cause — but she is not the only lesbian teacher to be fired recently by the Catholic Church over a pregnancy. Funny for a church founded on a nontraditional pregnancy.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that same-sex couples in Wisconsin and Indiana have the right to marry. My spouse and I met in Wisconsin (although we don’t live there anymore), so I’m especially pleased by this win. Making it even better was reading the ruling of Judge Richard Posner, who had grilled marriage equality opponents mercilessly during the hearing. Read on for highlights of his delightfully snarky decision.
As a general rule of life, I try not to gloat. But yesterday’s arguments in the federal marriage equality case in Indiana and Wisconsin were so overwhelmingly on the side of same-sex couples and our children that I can’t help but feel a little smug. One judge was particularly scathing in his questions to marriage equality opponents.
Two Virginia women who want to be moms are practicing by being awesome aunts. Why aren’t they taking steps to become parents? They’re waiting until both can be legal mothers to their child in their state. The U.S. Supreme Court is (so far) not helping.
Most of you likely know the story of Matthew Shepard, the University of Wyoming student brutally murdered in 1998 for being gay. Cathy Renna was working for GLAAD at the time, and was asked by the LGBT student group at the University to help manage the overwhelming media attention in the wake of the attack. She recently gave a TEDx talk on her experience, the impact of Matthew’s death, and the power of stories.
It’s a big day for marriage equality cases as the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals hears arguments in five cases covering the constitutionality of bans on marriage for same-sex couples in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. Approximately 18,300 children of same-sex couples and nearly 52,400 same-sex couples could be impacted by the outcome, according to UCLA’s Williams Institute.
Republican lawmakers, with the urging of anti-LGBT groups the Family Research Council and the Heritage Foundation, have introduced a bill last week that would allow adoption providers and other child welfare service agencies to refuse to provide services that conflict with their “sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions.” Think it’s a thinly veiled attempt to stop LGBT people from adopting or fostering? You’re right. But an opposing bill that would withhold federal funds from adoption providers that discriminate against LGBT people now has record support — although it is far from passage.
Reading the international headlines recently, I was reminded how LGBT rights around the world are at vastly different points of development.
Yesterday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Virginia’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples violates the 14th Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. That paves the way for Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina to allow same-sex couples to marry.
Australian Senator for South Australia and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Penny Wong, last week gave a pointed Senate speech against homophobia in sports, schools, and elsewhere.
