This morning, eight current and former members of the U.S. armed services filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and “seeking equal recognition, benefits and family support for equal sacrifice and service in the U.S. Armed Forces.” Three of the plaintiffs are lesbian moms, including lead plaintiff, Major Shannon L. […]
Halloween is almost upon us, the holiday that underscores like no other that society has certain gender expectations for boys and girls. Girls, by and large, are princesses; boys tend towards the violent as superheroes, Star Wars characters, soldiers, or pirates. But each year, it seems, at least one family makes the news because their child wants to defy those boundaries.
A major new report, “All Children Matter: How Legal and Social Inequalities Hurt LGBT Families” (PDF), was released today by the Center for American Progress, the Family Equality Council, and the Movement Advancement Project, in partnership with COLAGE, The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, and the National Association of Social Workers (with a foreword by the Child Welfare League of
How do we help our parents as they age? For adults with non-LGBT parents, there are plenty of resources on how to help parents through the various legal, financial, and emotional issues of growing old. Search the Web or your favorite online bookstore for “aging parents,” and you’ll be swamped with results.
For adults who wish to help their LGBT parents, however, the resources are far fewer. And while many of the issues older LGBT and non-LGBT people face are the same, some are not.
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) became a co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the anti-LGBT Defense of Marriage Act. Levin was one of the leaders in repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Michigan state Rep. Thomas McMillin (R-Rochester) introduced a bill that would eliminate LGBT people as a protected class under all local
The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute has just released a major new 69-page report, “Expanding Resources for Children III: Research-Based Best Practices in Adoption by Gays and Lesbians.” While the report is intended for adoption professionals and policy makers, I urge you to read at least the press release, if not the Executive Summary (PDF).
OK, let’s have a little group participation on this one. I need to get a birthday present for a classmate of my third-grade son. The boy is friendly enough to invite my son to his party, but not in the “best friends” category. I’ve never met the boy or the parents. Other than “Star Wars,” my
What can bathroom signs tell us about gender, sex, and society? Plenty, according to this great article by Marissa at The Society Pages, a multidisciplinary social science project organized by the University of Minnesota’s sociology department. Marissa has gathered an extensive, thought-provoking, and occasionally hilarious collection of bathroom signs from around the world. (A few
(Here’s another column I originally published last year, but which I think bears repeating as part of my parenting-related contribution to LGBT History Month. A few bits revised slightly to bring them up to date.) With Eric Stonestreet winning an Emmy last year for his portrayal of a gay dad in ABC’s Modern Family, and the
The federal Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form asks applicants to list their “mother/stepmother” and “father/stepfather.” But applying for aid, if you have same-sex parents, isn’t just a matter of crossing one of those out and writing in the correct term, says Tara Siegel Bernard of the New York Times in her piece, “How to File for Financial Aid if Your Parents Are Gay.”
