In two separate cases today, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. In less than an hour, I’m sure, you won’t be able to swing a virtual cat in the LGBT blogosphere without hitting an article about this. To get you started, here’s Lisa Keen’s […]
A circuit judge today struck down Arkansas’ ban against unmarried couples adopting or foster-parenting children. The Arkansas law was approved by voters in November 2008, during the same election that in California saw the imposition of Prop 8, which halted the previous legalization of marriage for same-sex couples. The news must be particularly galling to
A big congratulations to the same-sex couples in Washington, D.C., who can apply for marriage licenses starting today, with ceremonies to begin March 9. (Here’s how, if you want to.) The D.C. Marriage Bureau says it is preparing for a “flood” of couples. Several couples have volunteered to be media spokespeople, and because a few
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
Cate and Elizabeth Wirth, a lesbian couple in Vermont, were told by a Vermont district director of the Boy Scouts that they could no longer volunteer for their son’s Cub Scout troop after it became known that they are a couple. According to the Rutland Herald, Richard Stockton, Scout executive for the Green Mountain Council,
In what the Vermont Rutland Herald is calling “a first-of-its kind parent custody change,” Judge William Cohen of the Rutland Family Court yesterday granted sole custody of 7-year-old Isabella Miller to her non-biological mother, Janet Jenkins. Jenkins has been fighting her former partner Lisa Miller for visitation for years now. Miller says she is no
(Originally published in Bay Windows, September 15, 2009. I think Protect Maine Equality has gained some traction since I wrote it, but I believe much of the below still holds true.) My spouse and I took our six-year-old son camping in Maine right before the school year began. I have been camping there myself since
Too good to wait for the weekly roundup: The Montana Supreme Court affirmed a trial court decision granting a “parental interest” to Michelle Kulstad, a lesbian mom who had been co-parenting two children legally adopted only by her ex-partner, Barbara Maniaci. Under state law, the women could not jointly adopt. Maniaci is now married to
“We tried to incubate a rock and that didn’t work,” jokes Justin Richardson, one of the authors of And Tango Makes Three. The truth is, however, that he and his co-author and partner, Peter Parnell, became dads themselves back in February, as the New York Times reports today. Gemma Parnell-Richardson doesn’t have feathers like Tango,
President Barack Obama has proclaimed today Family Day. A minor holiday? Perhaps—but he breaks new ground by his inclusive definition of family.
