This week’s quote comes from Catherine Couvert, a lesbian mom in Northern Ireland, who addresses her country’s failure to move ahead with a proposal allowing joint adoption by same-sex and unmarried couples.
Marriage inequality harms children. Obvious to most readers here, I imagine—but the right-wing has long owned the “best interests of the children” argument in advertising and media. Now, however, one LGBT advocacy coalition is taking back that argument, in hopes of defeating yet another state constitutional ban on marriage for same-sex couples, this time Amendment One in North Carolina. See their new ad after the jump.
Today is the deadline for filing 2011 U.S. tax returns. In a timely piece, Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida (and a mom to the adorable boy who met First Lady Michelle Obama recently), writes about federal tax inequality for same-sex couples. She gives us our quote of the week:
The Defense of Marriage Act faces a federal appeals court; a pro-marriage equality initiative advances in Ohio; Chile passes an antidiscrimination measure, and more.
In a move that may shake up this year’s presidential race, suburban lesbian mom Jess Jo King has announced her intention to run for president on the 2012 ballot.
The White House photostream now includes a photo of First Lady Michelle Obama with Andrea and Logan Smith (10 months). Andrea is the executive director of Green Florida and wife of Equality Florida executive director Nadine Smith—and their son is absolutely adorable. (It’s all about the cheeks. Or maybe the eyes. Total cuteness either way.)
Many of us have been in this situation: Returning to the U.S. from a family vacation abroad, we stand in the customs line with partner and kid(s), only to be separated when it is our turn and the customs agent only allows “one family at a time”—meaning “only one federally recognized family.” Suddenly, all of our vacation relaxation is gone.
That will soon change.
This week’s roundup is brought to you by the letter “N,” with happenings in Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Nigeria (as well as a few non-N places).
Many of us have seen them: anti-LGBT “experts” who appear on the news spouting supposed “facts” about LGBT people—”facts” that are nothing more than fabrications or distortions wrapped in bias. Many of their arguments center around the supposed unsuitability of LGBT people to be parents. We might expect such people on certain conservative-leaning news channels, but when they appear even on more moderate ones, it can be infuriating.
GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, today announced the launch of its Commentator Accountability Project, which aims “to educate the media about the extreme rhetoric of over three dozen activists who are often given a platform to speak in opposition to LGBT people and the issues that affect their lives.”
Marriage equality took center stage again this week, but that’s not all that’s happening.
— A federal district court ruled that a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)–the part that denies federal recognition to same-sex couples–is unconstitutional. But the the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group said it will appeal the ruling.
— Opponents of marriage equality have asked the full U.S. 9th Circuit court to review the recent decision of a three-judge court panel that ruled California’s Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.
