Weekly Political Roundup

• What happened to the ENDA vote Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) said would happen this week? Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) now says she hopes it will happen in the next couple of weeks.
• Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a House committee that Congress should not pass its own repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell before he can come up with his own plan that addresses the concerns of current servicemembers.
• Five LGBT activists with the new group HERO staged a sit-in at the Phoenix office of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to protest his support of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
• A framework for immigration reform, introduced this week by Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, includes provisions to recognize non-U.S. same-sex partners of U.S. citizens as permanent residents. Already the Conference of Catholic Bishops has come out against the proposal. Read the rest of this post »

Raising Hell: The Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents

Last week I discussed the film Mom’s Apple Pie, which documented the role of lesbian moms in the early LGBT rights movement (and is now out on home video).

Now comes word of Raising Hell, a half-hour documentary by Ed Webb-Ingall that profiles the experiences of the young adult and adult children of lesbian and gay parents in the U.K., starting back in the late 1960′s. No information yet on release dates or international distribution.

Understanding our past helps us plan for the future. Maybe I’m biased by my training as a historian, but I really do believe that. It’s good to see filmmakers capturing not just lesbian and gay history, but the history of lesbian and gay parents and our children in particular.

Thanks to One More Lesbian for this trailer.

LGBT Parenting Roundup

(No vlog this week. Helen’s been away on a business trip, and it’s too hard to sit there talking to myself.)

Faith

• In an essay for Commonweal magazine, an anonymous lesbian mom discusses her Catholic faith, her and her partner’s decision to send their children to Catholic school, and the welcome they received there, in contrast to the experience of two moms in Colorado who were told their son could not return to Catholic school once it became known they were a couple. A must-read for anyone interested in matters of faith.
• A Vancouver teacher and lesbian mom says she was fired from her position at a Catholic girls’ school because she is a lesbian.

Schools and Youth

• The Illinois House passed an anti-bullying bill that will now go to Gov. Pat Quinn. The bill specifically covers bullying because of someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity, among other categories. (For more on why the enumeration of categories is necessary, see my longer piece on bullying.)
• While we’re on the subject of bullying, researchers at Harvard School of Public Health and Children’s Hospital found that people who have had a same-sex partner are up to two times as likely to experience violence, especially in childhood, and have double the risk of experiencing PTSD as a result.
• Some of you may remember Ceara Sturgis, a Mississippi student whose school told her she could not wear a tuxedo for her yearbook photo. Now, the school has released its yearbook, and removed any mention of Ceara at all. Mike Jones at Change.org says this is one more reason we need to push for the Student Nondiscrimination Act that has been introduced into Congress. Read the rest of this post »

Tell Florida County Not to Segregate Books

In the same month that the American Library Association came out with its annual list of the Most Frequently Challenged Books, two Florida moms have stepped up their campaign to have libraries put a “Warning: Mature Content” label on any young adult books that refer to illegal acts or contain “inappropriate” content and to segregate them from the rest of the young adult books. Dixie Fechtel and Diane Venetta have asked the Lake County Board of County Commissioners to impose such restrictions on the district’s nine municipal and six branch libraries.

Worse yet, they’ve enlisted the help of the ultra-conservative Liberty Counsel, who among other things have defended “ex-gay” mom Lisa Miller in her quest to keep ex-partner Janet Jenkins away from the child they raised together, simply because Jenkins is a lesbian.

Marriage of same-sex couples is illegal in Florida. So is adoption by gay men and lesbians. If books with “illegal acts” and “inappropriate” content are slapped with warning labels and segregated, do you think any books about LGBT families will be easily accessible? (Not to mention books that deal with abuse, drug use, reproductive rights, or any of the myriad of topics about which young adults have questions and that are likely to be viewed in the same vein.)

I’ve written more about this at Change.org, so you can go have a read. You can also use the widget below to petition the county commissioners not to concede to Fechtel and Venetta’s demands.

Start a Petition »

Which 529 to Choose?

Ready to open a 529 college savings account for your child? My spouse Helen has been looking into options for ours. Truth is, he already has 529′s in two states, but as we’ve both moved and learned more about 529′s, the options we’ve preferred have changed. (For the uninitiated: you are not required to open a 529 with your home state.)

Helen has done extensive research on the 529 options out there, looking at management fees, expense ratios, and more. Here’s the summary of her investigations.

She’s also done a brief overview of the new student loan laws, and a review of a new book about preparing your finances for handling kids and your kids for handling finances.

Have you started saving yet for your child’s education? If so, how?

Save the Date: Blogging for LGBT Families Day is June 1

Save the date: It’s that time of year again! On Tuesday, June 1, I will be hosting the 5th Annual Blogging for LGBT Families Day.

Over the past five years, hundreds of bloggers from around the world have participated, including lesbian moms, gay dads, bisexual parents, transgender parents, adult children of LGBT parents, LGBT individuals without children, and straight allies. Some bloggers told stories about their paths to parenthood, or tales about their children; some wrote about LGBT relatives or friends; others discussed current political events; and several spoke of why their faith obliges them to support LGBT rights. This year’s writings should be equally diverse and compelling.

Here’s how it works:

• Blog on a topic related to LGBT families on or before June 1, 2010.
• Complete the form at the bottom of this post to submit your entry. I encourage people to post on June 1; I am posting the form now in case anyone really wants to submit something early.
• I’ll compile the posts and highlight them here on June 1. Come back and read the stories and insights of our community and allies.

Any blogger who wants to support LGBT families is welcome, LGBT or not, parent or not. I encourage those who don’t usually post about LGBT families or LGBT issues, as well as those for whom every day is Blogging for LGBT Families Day. Give it a spin based on your usual blog topics. There’s no set formula or format. Photos and videos are also welcome.

The lists of contributions from 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006 are still online for your perusal.

Please also grab a banner after the jump and promote the event on your site, Facebook, Twitter, etc. The more people who participate, the more impact our voices will have.

Read the rest of this post »

Weekly Political Roundup

• The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, a case that explores whether student groups are able to exclude students based on “status or beliefs” if doing so violates the school’s anti-discrimination policy.
• President Obama’s administration is sending mixed messages about whether a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will happen this year as the President indicated in his State of the Union address.
• U.S. Army Lt. Dan Choi and five other LGBT military veterans handcuffed themselves to the White House fence to protest Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. They were jailed for a day and released.
• In Fiscal Year 2009, there were 443 servicemembers discharged under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Read the rest of this post »

LGBT Parenting Roundup

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 invite you to spend the evening with us at our home in Chicago next time you come through. You need to understand and see firsthand what a family like ours is like. We are no less a family than yours, and in fact, we are healthier and more stable than most.

  Based on further posts on McDonagh’s blog, Huckabee has not yet responded.

• Another chef, lesbian mom Cat Cora, is co-sponsoring the LGBT-friendly “Second Chance Prom” next month in Mississippi. It’s an annual event organized by the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition, but takes on added importance in light of the case of Mississippi teen Constance McMillen After Ellen interviewed Cora about her sponsorship and other charitable activities.

Politics and Law

• A lesbian couple from Brighton, England have become the first same-sex couple in the country to have both their names on their child’s birth certificate.
• Louisiana State Rep. Juan LaFonta has proposed a way to allow second-parent adoptions in his state without directly confronting the law that prevents unmarried couples from adopting. His bill would expand the existing list of eligible persons to petition for “intrafamily” adoptions.
• A Michigan Family Court judge ruled that non-bio mom Renee Harmon will have the opportunity to prove that she and her ex-partner, Tammy Davis, made an agreement to jointly raise their children. If she does so, the court will hold a custody hearing based on the best interests of the children. Nancy Polikoff has more.
• The Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IAHRC) ruled that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation against a parent in a child custody dispute violates the American Convention on Human Rights, reports Nan Hunter. Read the rest of this post »