At this afternoon’s LGBT Pride Month Reception at the White House, President Obama was introduced by nine-year-old twins Zea and Luna, third graders from California who have two moms. Watch after the jump (along with the President’s remarks).
Forty-six years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage in its landmark Loving vs. Virginia decision. The resonance with the pending Supreme Court decision on marriage for same-sex couples is obvious—but there is another thing we should keep in mind as we reflect on the significance of this anniversary.
The Hands on Children’s Museum of Jacksonville, Florida, has told a two-mom family that they must pay a higher membership rate than that of a family with a mom and a dad. [Updated]
Eighteen-year-old high school senior Riley Roberts spoke to the Nevada Assembly last week in favor of repealing the state’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples. Why does he care? He has lesbian moms. Watch his emotional testimony after the jump.
A Texas judge has ruled that a lesbian mom’s partner of three years move out, because of a “morality clause” in the mom’s divorce papers (from a previous opposite-sex marriage). The clause requires that no one she has a non-marital “dating or intimate relationship” with may stay in the home after 9 p.m. if the children are present, reports the Dallas Voice. And of course, same-sex couples are forbidden by law to marry or have their marriages recognized in Texas.
Minnesota will today become the 12th state to legalize marriage for same-sex couples—the 13th if one counts the District of Columbia—after the state Senate voted yesterday (May 13, 2013) to pass a marriage equality bill. Lucky 13.
Over 400,000 children are in foster care in the U.S., with over 100,000 of them eligible for adoption—and yet otherwise qualified LGBT prospective parents still face discrimination and legal restrictions in adoption and foster care. A bill being reintroduced in Congress this week seeks to change that.
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) must provide an accurate two-parent birth certificate to any child born to married lesbian parents in Iowa. Same-sex couples have been able to marry in Iowa since April 2009—but the IDPH has refused to recognize both members of a same-sex couple as parents of children born to them. They can do so no longer.
Joe is an 11-year-old boy who lives with his mom in Pennsylvania. He recently wrote a letter to his member of Congress, asking, “Please don’t let [my mom] get fired because she is gay.”
The French National Assembly and a Rhode Island Senate committee each passed a marriage equality bill yesterday, making them likely to become law in both places. The Delaware House also passed one on to the Senate, and the Nevada Senate took the first step towards repealing its constitutional ban on marriage for same-sex couples. Good news. But for Ariana and Diana, two lesbian moms, only a repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and a reform of immigration law will allow them to keep their family together without the risk of deportation.
