We’re Cooking Now Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh, the two gay dads and caterers who won the first season of The Next Food Network Star have invited former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (of “children are not puppies” fame) to dinner to meet them and their adopted son. McDonagh wrote on his blog: Mr. Huckabee, I […]
Politics and Law Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida announced a series of improved policies “more responsive to the needs of the LGBT community.” The move was in response to a lawsuit brought by Janice Langbehn, who in 2007 was kept from her partner Lisa Pond who lay dying in the hospital. The couple’s three children
I posted yesterday about the Census, and in replying to a comment I was reminded of a conversation we had here about a year ago regarding the Census and non-biological parents. I’m dusting it off, incorporating some of the comments, and posting it again, since those of us in the U.S. are receiving our Census
Schools and Youth The ACLU and and Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition are advocating on behalf of a Mississippi high school student who wants to go to the prom with her girlfriend. School officials have said she may not arrive with her girlfriend or wear a tux, and must leave if other students become “uncomfortable.” A
Court Cases The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today to uphold a lower-court ruling and demand the Louisiana Registrar of Vital Statistics respect a New York adoption by a same-sex couple of a Louisiana-born baby boy. Lambda Legal represented gay dads Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith in their quest to have Louisiana issue
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
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.
You’ve heard the story before (and before that). A lesbian couple splits up. The biological mother tries to deny custody to the non-biological mother. They go to court. (In the case of Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller, they did so for years, with disastrous results when the bio mom flouted court orders and went into
Too good to wait for the next roundup: In an unexpected move, a Texas court issued a new ruling earlier this month in the case of a nonbiological lesbian mom suing her ex-partner for visitation rights to their child. Nancy Polikoff informs us that this new ruling reverses that of a lower court, which had
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
