Lots of news this week in addition to the overturning of the Florida adoption ban. Scholarly Stuff I’m not the only one thinking about known donors and three-parent families. Lawyer Ari Ezra Waldman takes a look at some of the same cases I mentioned plus a few others. Sociologist Philip N. Cohen writes at HuffPo […]
A bit of sunshine from the Sunshine State today. The Florida Third District Court of Appeals this morning upheld a lower court ruling that said the state’s ban on adoption by gay men and lesbians is unconstitutional, and that a gay man, Frank Martin Gill, can adopt the two boys he and his partner have
A recent case and some news from Canada have gotten me thinking about known donors. A Santa Monica, Calif. court ruled in the case of Daniel C. vs. Karen B. that Daniel, a known sperm donor whom Karen had found on Craigslist, had no rights to the child she conceived. The two had signed a
I’m passing along this message from Julia Li, a producer of the documentary “Out in America,” which will air nationally on PBS in 2011. She says “It’s a film that celebrates and explores a diverse spectrum of experiences in various LGBT communities, but there are a few voices that are still missing from the film.”
Jonathan Kemmerer-Scovner has a spot-on essay at Critical Masses Media about same-sex parents in children’s books. “Children’s literature,” he observes, “acts as a testing ground for the social mores of a society. You may think we’re all progressing along at a fine rate, but if you really want to see where we’re at, stick it in a children’s book and see what that gets you.”
Civilly unionized? United civilly? Yet another reason civil unions don’t work: there’s no verb form. Regardless of the linguistic hurdles, however, I’d like to send best wishes to actor Kelly McGillis and her partner, sales executive Melanie Leis, who had a civil union ceremony last week. McGillis, who came out last year, has two children from
Not too many stories, but some potentially very significant ones: Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell. Do Call. The end of ENDA (along with tired ENDA-related puns)? Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced the Health Data Collection Improvement Act to allow Health and Human Services to collect voluntary data on sexual orientation and gender identity in federal health
The next few days could be critical for the outcome of a Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he will schedule a vote for next week on the defense authorization bill that contains provisions for repeal. He has also filed for “cloture”—a move to limit debate on the
I’ve been writing about non-parenting topics in a few other places. For those who might be interested: Census count on same-sex couples: How far off? Seeing Red: Target’s Partnership with The Salvation Army Court Overturns “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” — But We Still Need to Act Immigration Laws Tearing Couples Apart Playing Red Light, Green
A family includes same-sex couples with children, as well as married gay and lesbian couples. That’s the belief of “a majority of Americans” who now include the above in their definition of family, according to a study by Brian Powell, a sociology professor at Indiana University, Bloomington. The New York Times has a piece this
