Rosie O’Donnell’s new documentary A Family Is a Family Is a Family, premieres this Sunday, January 31, at 7 p.m. ET on HBO. I’ve seen a screener, and here are my thoughts. Overall, this is a great film, aimed at the elementary school ages, that focuses on children of various backgrounds speaking about their families. […]
“The only thing the State or anybody should be looking at, the best interests of the child and how he is loved.” —Florida Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia, in granting Vanessa Alenier’s petition to adopt an infant cousin, despite the state ban on gay men and lesbians adopting children (via Nancy Polikoff)
Parenting Studies “How Does the Gender of Parents Matter?” asks the lead article in this month’s Journal of Marriage and Family. The answer, from sociologists Timothy Biblarz of University of Southern California and Judith Stacey of New York University, is that it doesn’t, with the “partial exception of lactation.” The gender of parents “has minor
(I originally wrote this as my end-of-year newspaper column a few weeks ago. The Jenkins-Miller case has seen some action since that time. The rest, I hope, is a good look back before we move forward.) “Whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple, or a guardian, families encourage
Here are a few stories I haven’t covered in separate posts: Politics and Law A committee appointed by the Bombay High Court has created draft guidelines for the adoption of Indian children by foreign nationals. Under the guidelines, which are not yet final, single parents would be able to adopt, but not a same-sex couple.
From Rosie O’Donnell comes “A Family Is a Family Is a Family,” a great-looking new documentary premiering this Sunday, January 31, at 7 p.m. ET on HBO. Much of the film features children talking about their families, including ones with same-sex parents, single parents, adoptive families, and mixed-heritage families. Part of it features Rosie talking
Personal Stories The Iowa Press-Citizen profiles Iowans Dawn and Jen BarbouRoske, who talk about their 19-year relationship, their new legal marriage, and their children. Both the women and their two children—at the children’s urging—were plaintiffs in the case that won marriage equality in the state. The article gives us our Quote of the Week: More
Politics and Law A must-read this week is Jacob M. Appel’s piece on the growing “sperm donors’ rights movement,” in which donors are trying to assert their claims to parenthood. New Mexico’s new parentage laws go into effect on January 1, Nancy Polikoff reminds us. The Really Quite Wonderful new law states: “a person who…consents
Hot on the feathered heels of last week’s news about another pair of gay penguin dads comes the story of two female albatrosses in New Zealand who are incubating an egg together (Queerty, via GayNZ.com). They are not the first Sapphic avians who have tried to start a family, however; two of the famed swans
The Canadians are on a roll. Hot on the heels of Who’s Your Daddy?, the volume of LGBTQ parenting essays I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, comes And Baby Makes More, a similar volume from a Canadian press, but one that focuses on the experiences of those who have used known donors, those
