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.
Parenting
- After Ellen, as part of their new “Debate Team” feature, has a discussion going about couples who are divided in their desire to have children.
Entertainment
- Jessica Rothschild of Autostraddle interviews Jewish comedian and lesbian mom Judy Gold.
- Actor and lesbian mom Sara Gilbert is among those moms—lesbian and straight—who will host “a CBS version of The View geared toward moms.”
- Brett Berk interviews Lauren Myracle, whose ttyl tops the American Library Association’s 2009 list of Most Challenged Books, and who faced controversy last year because a character in another one of her books has lesbian moms.
Media Moment
- Fifty-two percent of people in the Houston area favor adoption rights for same-sex couples, according to this year’s Houston Area Survey, up from 19 percent in 1991. What My Fox Houston neglects to mention, however, is that the city has a lesbian mom as mayor, Annise Parker. Not that she’s single-handedly responsible for the change in opinion over the last two decades, but she is yet another sign that attitudes are changing. Note, too, the profile of two gay dads in the article. It’s full of obvious statements such as: “just like any other family, they take vacations,” but is better than I would have expected from a Fox news source.