Texas is not the most progressive of states, as most of us know. All the more reason, then, to admire 16-year-old Mason Marriott-Voss, who spoke recently about his two moms to a Freedom to Marry town hall at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin.
David Rosen is running for treasurer of the most populous county in Texas. In his latest campaign video, he explains how his two moms, retired public schoolteachers, inspired him to serve his community.
Three recent stories about same-sex parents trying to obtain accurate birth certificates for their children underscore the obstacles and confusion we often face in trying to protect our families.
A Houston lesbian couple was found murdered in Galveston, Texas on Friday morning, reports ABC affiliate KTRK-TV (via Elixher). That’s awful news in any case, but it’s made worse because one of the women has a young daughter.
Yesterday saw not one, but two major wins for fairness and equality. Arizona’s Gov. Jan Brewer (R) vetoed a bill that would have allowed businesses to refuse service or employment based on “sincerely held” religious beliefs — designed to target LGBT people, but with much wider potential impact. And a federal judge in Texas ruled that the state’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples was unconstitutional.
[Updated again: Now with Alabama and Virginia!] Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, and Texas all had positive news about marriage equality yesterday. Let’s round it all up. (I know: Nevada isn’t really part of the south, but it’s south of where I am, so grant me some poetic license here.)
A Texas judge has ruled that a lesbian mom’s partner of three years move out, because of a “morality clause” in the mom’s divorce papers (from a previous opposite-sex marriage). The clause requires that no one she has a non-marital “dating or intimate relationship” with may stay in the home after 9 p.m. if the children are present, reports the Dallas Voice. And of course, same-sex couples are forbidden by law to marry or have their marriages recognized in Texas.
It’s a mostly international edition this time, with lots of LGBT parenting news from around the world. Go world!
Just days after we learned of yet another pair of same-sex penguin dads, comes the news that the Austin Independent School District in Texas has cancelled the performances at local elementary schools of “And Then Came Tango,” a play based on the real-life story of two male penguins who parented together.
Kate Henley Averett, a graduate student in sociology at the University of Texas, is seeking LGBTQ parents for a study of parenting philosophies and practices. At the moment, she says at her Web site: I am looking for LGBTQ couples in Massachusetts and Texas who are parents of children ages 10 and under to be
