The Michigan House voted to ban benefits for domestic partners of all public employees in the state. The bill now goes to the Senate. North Carolina’s legislature approved a ballot measure to ask voters whether to ban marriage for same-sex couples under the state constitution. It is already banned by statute. I covered the story […]
Authors Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith wrote in a post at Publishers Weekly this week that a literary agent told them to make a gay character in their young adult novel straight if they wanted the agent to represent them. It’s unfortunately not an isolated occurence. If you’re wondering why, author Patricia Nell Warren
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
Leslie Morgan Steiner has a piece up at Modern Mom and Mommy Tracked asking, “Do Your Kids Care If You’re Married?” Good question. Steiner observes that the latest Census figures show that unmarried adults almost outnumber married couples for the first time in recorded U.S. history, and that “More than ever, children today are growing up
Glee actor Jane Lynch spoke with the Advocate about her new memoir, Happy Accidents, her early life and career, coming out, and becoming a sudden mother after meeting and marrying psychologist Lara Embry, who has two children from a previous relationship. “Motherhood has changed me,” she says. You and all the rest of us, darling. But there’s
I’ve posted a similar version of this for a few years now, but it seems appropriate to do so again. In honor of all the victims of the tragedy of September 11 and its aftermath, their families, and their friends. I will always remember, as will many of us, where I was the morning of
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced new guidance related to rules that protect hospital patients’ right to choose their own visitors, including a visitor who is a same-sex partner. On a related note, HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration awarded $248,000 to the Fenway Institute in Boston, Mass., to create a
Here’s a great new video from Marriage Equality, an organization dedicated to achieving equal access to civil marriage for same-sex couples in Ireland. It features Rory, the grown son of lesbian moms, who discovers that his lack of a legal relationship with his non-biological mother has some very serious consequences. (Thanks to the Irish Examiner
Family Creation The American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s Sexuality, Reproduction & Menopause (SRM) e-journal has an article explaining, “What are the reproductive options when a same-sex couple wants a family?“ Law The New York Law Journal tells us, “Creative Parenting Agreements Still Needed With Same-Sex Marriage,” reminding us why second-parent adoptions are still needed even
Where are are most same-sex couples raising kids? Mostly in the deep South and Mountain West regions, according to a new analysis of Census 2010 by the Williams Institute of UCLA—although the data confirms a trend already seen in Census 2000. Williams demographer Gary Gates explains, “In these socially conservative areas, LGBT people likely come
