Lawyer Nancy Polikoff informs us of both good news and bad news this week: First, the bad news: The Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal just ruled that lesbian mom Kimberlee Black is not entitled to joint custody of a child she co-raised for six years. Full custody will go to the child’s biological mother, […]
Safe Schools After reviewing the suicide of 11-year-old Jaheem Herrara, Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore, a retired Superior Court judge in Fulton County, Georgia, said the boy was “emotionally ruined” by the recent murder of his uncle and the death of his grandmother, and his school was not responsible for his death. The boy’s mother, Masika
Lesbian mom? Split up? Fine, things didn’t work out, but don’t go trying to pretend your former partner and co-parent wasn’t a parent. There’s entirely too much of that going around. The Salt Lake City Weekly just reported on Gena Edvalson and Jana Dickson, who are in exactly this situation. Dickson is the bio mom,
Tragedy: GLSEN reports, “An 11-year-old Massachusetts boy, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, hung himself Monday [April 6] after enduring bullying at school, including daily taunts of being gay, despite his mother’s weekly pleas to the school to address the problem. This is at least the fourth suicide of a middle-school aged child linked to bullying this year.”
Rockin’ gay dads, another pregnant transgender man, and actual Good News on the political front in a couple of areas this week. First, some food for thought: A new study from the always insightful Williams Institute at UCLA found that same-sex couples are “significantly” more likely to be poor than opposite-sex married couples. Even more
Good news: The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear the case of “ex-lesbian” mom Lisa Miller, letting stand a ruling that Virginia must enforce a Vermont court order awarding child-visitation rights to Miller’s former civil-union partner Janet Jenkins. This is the same case that Newsweek covered this week as well. Best wishes to six-year-old
There’s more going on right now than just the presidential election and Halloween. Here are a few stories: First, score one for the penguins: Library trustees in Calvert County, Maryland, voted unanimously to keep And Tango Makes Three in the children’s section of county libraries, along with other picture books, despite an official complaint that
The U.S. Department of Justice ruled Tuesday that the Social Security Administration must recognize the children of same-sex couples, including their relationship with non-biological parents, even though the federal Defense of Marriage Act prevents the government from recognizing or providing benefits to those couples. The opinion was offered in the case of a minor child
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled today that the state must enforce a Vermont court order awarding child-visitation rights to Janet Jenkins, a non-biological lesbian mom locked in a custody battle with her former partner, Lisa Miller. The Court rejected Miller’s claim that Virginia law and a state constitutional amendment against same-sex unions (including ones from
First, let’s revisit some good news about parental rights: Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) is the New England LGBT legal organization best known for its leading role in achieving marriage equality for same-sex couples in Massachusetts. Mary Bonauto, Civil Rights Project Director for GLAD, was also lead counsel in Goodridge v. Dept. of
