Zach Wahls, a University of Iowa student with two moms, spoke before hundreds of people yesterday at an Iowa House hearing about a bill to ban marriage for same-sex couples. The House today passed the bill, which now goes to the Senate.
President Obama, in his State of the Union address, noted the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and called on college campuses that had banned military recruiters and ROTC because of the policy to allow them to return. Some LGBT advocates are saying colleges should not do so until servicemembers are protected against gender identity
I often get e-mail from lesbian parents seeking legal advice for various matters: protecting both parents’ rights as they embark on parenthood; wanting advice in a custody or other dispute; wondering if their county/state will allow second-parent adoptions, and the like. I am not a lawyer, so I can’t offer advice myself, but I can
(Originally published as my Mombian newspaper column, hence the slightly belated posting here. But it’s still January, so I figure it’s still good.)
As 2010 gives way to 2011, let us ask: How has the year been in terms of political and legal progress for LGBT parents and our children?
The most notable parenting-specific win of the year was arguably Florida’s judicial overturning of its ban on adoption by gay men or lesbians. Mississippi, however, continues to ban same-sex couples from adopting, and Arkansas, Michigan, and Utah ban unmarried couples, which means essentially the same thing. The federal Every Child Deserves a Family Act, which would have withheld federal funds from states and other entities that discriminate against gay men and lesbians in adoption or foster care placements, was introduced in March, but failed to make it out of committee.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed new federal regulations that would ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in its core housing programs. (My piece on this at Keen News Service. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case of a group of clergy who want
The two children at the heart of the case that legalized adoption for gay men and lesbians in Florida have now been legally adopted by Martin Gill. The family had an adoption ceremony yesterday in the offices of Judge Cindy Lederman, the Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge who ruled that the adoption ban was unconstitutional and said
There really was only one choice this week. If you’ve only read about this and haven’t seen it, I recommend that you take the time to do so. (And read the Open Letter to Parents by First Lady Michelle Obama as well.) I’m not doing a Weekly Political Roundup this week because the snow—and school
Less than a week after news broke that the State Department would be changing U.S. passport applications and Consular Record of Birth Abroad (CRBA) forms to say “Parent” and “Parent” rather than the gender-specific “Mother” and “Father,” the department has modified its decision. The Associated Press (AP) reported yesterday that the forms would instead say “Mother
Nine-year old Christina-Taylor Green “was very interested in going” to see her state representative speak “because she wanted to learn more about government so she could help out in the future,” said her mother, Roxanna Green, according to MSNBC. Now the girl is dead, killed by the same man who shot U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said he would work to help implement the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, even though he opposed the legislation. President Barack Obama renominated Edward C. DuMont to be a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. If the Senate approves his nomination, DuMont would become
