Last LGBT Parenting Roundup of the Year

I’m still in “light posting over the holidays” mode here, but for those of you still out there and reading, here’s a quick roundup of LGBT parenting news to hold you for a few days:

• President Bush—yes, that’s right—signed the Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WRERA), making it mandatory for businesses to roll over retirement benefits to a same-sex partner in the event of the employee’s death. This means same-sex couples, just like opposite-sex married couples, will automatically avoid tax penalties on those benefits. (My suspicion? Bush isn’t bothering to read anything that crosses his desk these days. Still, we’ll take it. This could have a significant impact on some couples’ financial security.)
• Could Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s appointment of ultra-conservatives to the state’s Commission on Marriage and Family mean an attempt to ban adoption by same-sex couples in the state? Appointees include Tony Perkins, who heads the Family Research Council, clergy from conservative Christian denominations, and the law professor who wrote the state’s “covenant marriage” law. I wonder how last week’s U.S. District Court ruling that the Louisiana state registrar must honor the New York adoption of a baby boy by a same-sex couple will affect matters. Read the rest of this post »

What Were Your Favorite Moments of 2008?

Every TV news show and newspaper is publishing retrospective best-of lists for 2008. I gave in to the trend myself.

Your turn, now. What were your favorite moments or events—personal, political, or otherwise—from the past year? (Leave a link if you’ve already posted on your own blog.)

Lesbian Moms, Mmm, Mmm Good

Campbell Soup is the latest company to realize the value of marketing to the $650 billion LGBT market—and specifically, to lesbian moms. They have run a two-page spread for Swanson’s broth in the Advocate, featuring two lesbian moms and their young son. The women, Lea Forant and Carolyn Montgomory, are owners of Café Forant in Manhattan, and apparently use Campbell’s Swanson chicken broth in preparing many of their Christmas Eve dishes.

The conservative American Family Association has already sent an e-mail to its members declaring “Campbell Soup Company embraces homosexual agenda.” The Advocate itself then covered the controversy, as did advertising trade journal AdAge (where you can see a large version of the ad).

So far, Campbell, which scored 100% on the HRC Corporate Equality Index, is holding strong, and says they will have further ad placements in the Advocate. No word from the moms on their reaction, although the Café Forant Web site notes that Forant is a die-hard Red Sox fan in New York. She’s tough, that gal. I don’t think the AFA will phase her.

I admit, I make most of my own soup, and don’t buy a lot of cans, but I do sometimes stock a few for emergency use. You bet this is going to affect my purchase decisions. Campbell’s also owns the Pepperidge Farm, Prego, V8, and Pace brands, which means I can justify buying more Milano cookies and support an LGBT-positive company at the same time.

You can express your support to Campbell’s by writing to Douglas R. Conant at Campbell Soup Co, Campbell Place, Camden, NJ 08103, (800) 442-7684 or (800) 257-8443, douglas_r_conant@campbellsoup.com, or by using the feedback form on the Campbell corporate website. (There’s also a separate form for Investor Relations.)

LGBT Parent Newsmakers of the Year

Who were the LGBT parents who made headlines this year in mainstream or LGBT news? Here are my top individuals or couples, in alphabetic (not rank) order. (This started as a top-ten list, but outgrew that appellation by a bit. Consider it a holiday bonus.) Read the rest of this post »

Happy Kwanzaa!

A very happy Kwanzaa to those of you celebrating it today. I am not one of them, but I love how Kwanzaa shows that we can honor our heritage in new ways, with traditions rooted in the past but developed in the present. (Kwanzaa was founded in 1966, which to me counts as present in terms of major holidays.) I love the way it draws from multiple African cultures regardless of religious faith and celebrates the diversity within a common identity. Lots of lessons there for all people.

I am sure there are some families out there celebrating threefold this week: Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa (with perhaps even a Solstice ceremony as well). Whatever combination of holidays you observe, may you rejoice in your family’s multifaceted heritage and your own unique interpretation of it.

And Mamma In Her Kerchief, and Mommy in Her Cap

. . . had just settled down for a long winter’s nap.

Merry Christmas to those of you observing the holiday. The joys of the season to you and your families.

Major Win for Same-Sex Adoptive Parents

So hot off the presses, it’s still smoking . . . . This just in via Lambda Legal. A federal court judge has ordered the Louisiana State Registrar to recognize an out-of-state adoption by two gay dads, and issue a birth certificate recognizing both as parents.

“This sends a strong message to state officials across the country that the Constitution requires them to respect the parent-child relationships established by adoptions decrees regardless of the state where the decree is entered,” said Ken Upton, supervising senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal. “State officials may not punish children by denying them a birth certificate simply because they disapprove of their parents.”

While I don’t usually just paste in a press release, I’m going to do so because it’s holiday time and I told myself I was going to cut back a little on new content for the week. Lambda doesn’t even have this up on their site yet, so I can’t just provide a link. Here’s the full text:

(New Orleans, December 23, 2008) — In a major victory for same-sex parents nationwide, a U.S. District Court judge in Louisiana has ordered the state registrar to honor the New York adoption of a baby boy by a same-sex couple, saying her continued failure to do so violated the U.S. Constitution.

Lambda Legal represented Oren Adar and Mickey Smith, a gay couple who adopted their Louisiana-born son in 2006 in a New York court, where a judge issued an adoption decree. When Smith attempted get a new birth certificate for their child, in part so he could add his son to his health insurance, the office of State Registrar Darlene Smith told him that Louisiana does not recognize adoption by unmarried parents and so could not issue it. Read the rest of this post »

Rick Warren and LGBT Families: Opposing Views

Rick Warren, Rick Warren. President-elect Obama’s selection of the evangelical preacher to give the invocation at Inauguration continues to stir up debate, as a quick glance at any LGBT news site will tell you. My own feeling at the moment is that Warren is a bigot and should not have been chosen, but at this point, Obama is not going to change his mind. The best solution under the circumstances, then, would be to try and dilute Warren’s effect by asking a group of people from diverse traditions to give the invocation along with Warren, as I explained at more length at Bilerico.

For further reading, however, consider these contrasting stories about Warren and LGBT families: Read the rest of this post »

If You’ve Left It Till the Last Minute

At this point, it’s pretty much all about the gift certificates (though if you’re celebrating Hanukkah, you might just squeak in with a mailed gift and expedited shipping before the eighth day). Amazon has gift certificates that you can e-mail or print yourself, loaded with as little as $5. (Full disclosure: I do make a small referral fee from each purchase made through Mombian, but that’s how I keep the site going.)

Other last-minute options include baked goods or the promise of a homemade dinner (depending on your culinary skill) or handmade coupons for childcare, household chores, and the like. And who could resist a big batch of homemade playdough?

What are your last-minute gift secrets?

Winter Wonderland

Sometimes I blog, sometimes I just play in the snow. (Actual picture of my backyard.)

Posting will be light this week. I’ll probably put a few things up, though, so stop by between slices of fruitcake or latkes. I suspect I’ll be spending Thursday helping a very excited five-year-old assemble various Lego projects. (In a few years I won’t be able to post things like that in advance because he’ll be reading this blog himself.)

Happy holidays!