Morgan Aitken-Young, a 17-year-old resident of Fremont, California, won first place in the national Young Voices Foundation Short Story Contest with “Unequal,” a moving piece about life as the daughter of lesbian moms. The Palo Alto Daily News has more. Her piece is more than a personal essay, however. She fictionalizes it so she can
It’s Banned Books Week once again, the American Library Association’s annual celebration of the freedom to read. Each year, the ALA tracks the books that have received an official challenge, “a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.” Judith F. Krug, director of
For those of you watching the presidential debate tonight, I offer up a libation for your consideration—the Sarah Palin Cocktail: Lipstick on the rim, but nothing inside. Naw. I’m going for something stronger. I think I’ll need it. I might also invite some friends to bring over their favorite ingredients so we can create a
The ACLU won a federal court decision that ruled discrimination against a transgender person constitutes per se sex discrimination in violation of Title VII. Nan Hunter at Bilerico has further analysis of what this means for ENDA, and warns that it is a trial-level court decision, which the Justice Department is likely to appeal. The
Because the financial bailout isn’t the only thing happening this week: Ten-year-old Kira Findling of Sebastopol, California, wrote “Please Let My Moms Be Married,” a moving plea to vote no on Prop. 8, for the Press Democrat newspaper. A new report by the nonpartisan Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute in New York concludes that gay
The indefatigable folks of the No On 8 coalition have released a new ad featuring the parents of a lesbian daughter. They don’t treat her any differently than they do their straight children, they say. Why should the state? Spread it around: Give if you can (and if you’re not in Arizona or Florida, fighting
There’s lots of news below about Prop. 8, the measure to ban marriage of same-sex couples in California. Let’s not forget there are similar measures in Arizona and Florida—but California is the big one, as it would represent the greatest reversal for supporters of LGBT equality. This weekend is No on 8 Action Weekend, and
Ellen Degeneres revealed she is the new face of Cover Girl barely a week after the first smear in the lipstick wars between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama. {democracy:13}
The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled this week that adoptions by stepparents are allowed only when the stepparent is married to the child’s biological parent. In a catch-22, same-sex stepparents cannot therefore adopt because Kentucky has a constitutional amendment banning marriage of same-sex couples. The ruling holds regardless of whether the person was involved in
Another collection of stories from round and about: The Boston Globe this Sunday covered the disturbing story of separated gay dads, one of whom kidnapped their son and fled with him to Israel before being stopped by international authorities. The dads were one of the first same-sex couples to marry in Massachusetts, and were profiled
