Sometimes it’s good to be reminded of how far we’ve come. In 1995, Floridian Mary Ward lost custody of their daughter to her ex-husband, even though he had been absent from the girl’s life for six years—and been convicted of murdering his first wife in a custody dispute. Why did the judge not award custody to Ward? She was a lesbian. Now, a new documentary tells the sobering story of the case.
The state of Iowa has made two moves this week that challenge the rights of same-sex parents.
First, Governor Terry Branstad’s (R) administration announced it will appeal a state district court ruling that said a child born to a lesbian couple married in that state has the right to have the names of both her parents on her birth certificate.
The military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) ban on openly lesbian and gay servicemembers is now gone. In a piece for Keen News Service, I took a look at how repeal of DADT will impact the children of these servicemembers. I’m not the only one to explore this issue, however. Stars and Stripes magazine, a Department of
If you’ve been following news about LGBT parents for any length of time, you’ve probably come across at least one, if not several, examples of custody cases in which a biological parent tries to deny custody to a former same-sex partner and non-biological parent, claiming that the latter is not really a parent to the
If you read one story about lesbian moms today, make it this one from RH Reality Check, by Jaime Jenett. Jenett writes from her perspective as the nonbiological mother of a critically ill child, and says, “policies designed to prevent same sex families from having legal protections took on a whole new meaning for me”
Just when I was starting to get all happy about the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal comes a court ruling that really pisses me off. The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a second-parent adoption by state Sen. Julia Boseman of her ex-partner Melissa Jarrell’s son was invalid. The ruling could jeopardize other
At a time when our community is already grieving too many of its young people, here is another story to break your heart. Frankie Valencia, Jr. was randomly shot by a gang member in Chicago last fall. As if that wasn’t tragic enough, his non-biological mother, Siu Moy, was fired from her job after his
Add another court victory to the recent Prop 8 and DOMA wins. The Eighth District Court of Appeals in Ohio last week rejected an attempt to use the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage to prevent a lesbian mother from sharing custody of her children with her former partner. Lambda Legal, which represents Rita Goodman
New York’s highest court ruled this week in a custody case that gave a non-biological mom the right to seek custody and visitation of the child she and her former partner had created and raised together. Great, right? Yes, for that one mom. But the court said the non-biological mother only had that right because
Too good to wait for the next roundup: The Pennsylvania state Superior Court overturned a 25-year-old precedent that said in custody cases involving former opposite-sex couples, where one person is now in a same-sex relationship, the burden is placed on the LGB parent to prove that the same-sex relationship will have no adverse effect on
