The state of Iowa has made two moves this week that challenge the rights of same-sex parents.
First, Governor Terry Branstad’s (R) administration announced it will appeal a state district court ruling that said a child born to a lesbian couple married in that state has the right to have the names of both her parents on her birth certificate.
Susan Goldberg, aka Mama Non Grata, has just published a terrific article, “Que(e)rying the matrilineal principle,” in Lilith magazine, the Jewish feminist powerhouse. Susan questions what it means to be “born Jewish” when Jewish identity is traditionally passed on through the mother–and her sons are only biologically connected to her non-Jewish spouse.
The military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) ban on openly lesbian and gay servicemembers is now gone. In a piece for Keen News Service, I took a look at how repeal of DADT will impact the children of these servicemembers. I’m not the only one to explore this issue, however. Stars and Stripes magazine, a Department of
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
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
I’ll start off my first post-vacation roundup with a few summer stories of interest: An Australian court ruled that a nonbiological mother had the right to have her name on the birth certificate of the child she had with her former partner, and that the sperm donor had no parental rights. California Governor Jerry Brown
Adoption This Is Lincolnshire gives an overview of adoption by same-sex couples in the U.K. Apparently, there has been a 50 per cent increase in adoption by same-sex couples during the last six years, and they adopt 1 in 20 adoptive children. (Joint adoption by same-sex couples only became legal six years ago, however, so
If you read one story about lesbian moms today, make it this one from RH Reality Check, by Jaime Jenett. Jenett writes from her perspective as the nonbiological mother of a critically ill child, and says, “policies designed to prevent same sex families from having legal protections took on a whole new meaning for me”
At a time when our community is already grieving too many of its young people, here is another story to break your heart. Frankie Valencia, Jr. was randomly shot by a gang member in Chicago last fall. As if that wasn’t tragic enough, his non-biological mother, Siu Moy, was fired from her job after his
Add another court victory to the recent Prop 8 and DOMA wins. The Eighth District Court of Appeals in Ohio last week rejected an attempt to use the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage to prevent a lesbian mother from sharing custody of her children with her former partner. Lambda Legal, which represents Rita Goodman
