Riley Hackford-Peer is a 12-year-old living with his two moms and his younger brother in Utah. He gave a speech at a rally in Salt Lake City Friday, telling the crowd that watching his moms marrying in Utah “felt like fireworks bursting in my heart.”
Attorney Roberta Kaplan, who argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case that led to the downfall of part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), has received several recent accolades for her work. She says her most important job, however, is “raising my son.”
This past year has been full of events—positive and negative — that have impacted the struggle for equality of LGBT parents and our children. Here are some highlights.
The LGBT news from around the world keeps getting worse. The Ugandan Parliament today passed a bill that criminalizes the “promotion” of “homosexuality” and can lead to life imprisonment for those convicted of “aggravated homosexuality.” Several other countries have had similar recent news.
This just in: A federal district court judge has ruled that it is unconstitutional for Utah to prevent same-sex couples from marrying.
New Mexico makes 17! Yesterday, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of marriage equality, making 17 states, plus the District of Columbia, that allow same-sex couples to wed — eight states in 2013 alone. All of the plaintiff couples in the case are parents. But in our celebrations of the Land of Enchantment, we should take a moment to remember one mom who was fighting for marriage there while she was fighting for her life.
This holiday season, GLAAD is organizing a campaign to help both LGBT families and allies send a copy of their family’s holiday card to the governors of anti-equality states, with a note saying that all families should be treated equally. It’s a great idea that could have a big impact.
The Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled that a child can have two parents of the same sex, even if they have not done a second-parent adoption. This is good news—but behind it is yet another case of a biological mother trying to deny parental rights to a nonbiological mother.
Today is Bill of Rights Day, commemorating the day the first ten amendments to the Constitution came into effect. President Obama, in his proclamation of the event, spoke obliquely but to my mind undoubtedly about equality for LGB people. This, on a day to honor what he called “the foundation of American liberty, securing our most fundamental rights” is a significant statement.
The U.S. Department of Education announced today that it will recognize a student or a parent as legally married if they were legally married in any jurisdiction that recognizes the marriage, regardless of the gender of the spouses, where they live, or where they are attending school.
