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Happy Juneteenth Day
Today is Juneteenth Day, which marks the emancipation of Black slaves in Texas in 1865, and celebrates emancipation generally. It’s a good day to reflect both on racism and on the many overlapping issues of social justice in our country.
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Video: Nine-Year-Old Twins of Lesbian Moms Introduce President at White House Pride Reception
At this afternoon’s LGBT Pride Month Reception at the White House, President Obama was introduced by nine-year-old twins Zea and Luna, third graders from California who have two moms. Watch after the jump (along with the President’s remarks).
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The Freedom of Loving
Forty-six years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage in its landmark Loving vs. Virginia decision. The resonance with the pending Supreme Court decision on marriage for same-sex couples is obvious—but there is another thing we should keep in mind as we reflect on the significance of this anniversary.
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Florida Museum Denies Two-Mom Family a Family Membership
The Hands on Children’s Museum of Jacksonville, Florida, has told a two-mom family that they must pay a higher membership rate than that of a family with a mom and a dad. [Updated]
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Another Son of Lesbian Moms Speaks Out for Equality
Eighteen-year-old high school senior Riley Roberts spoke to the Nevada Assembly last week in favor of repealing the state’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples. Why does he care? He has lesbian moms. Watch his emotional testimony after the jump.
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Yesterday, ExxonMobil shareholders for the 14th year in a row rejected a resolution to add sexual orientation and gender identity and expression to the company’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy—a policy that had been in place in the Mobil corporation before its merger with Exxon. And in a test conducted by LGBT group Freedom to Work, the company called back a less-qualified applicant over a more-qualified one, with the main difference in their resumes being that the latter volunteered with an LGBT-rights organization. So where will you fill up to take the kids to soccer practice?
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Parenting Is Love (and a Little Nagging)
There was so much good stuff going around for Mother’s Day that I neglected to share this great one-minute video from The Righteous Conversations Project, which brings together Holocaust survivors and teens to speak up about injustice. The video isn’t about the Holocaust, though; if anything, it’s about parental nagging in the age of social media. It comes via Keshet, the organization for LGBT inclusion in Jewish life—but I think it speaks to a commonality of many families.
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Tomorrow, the Boy Scouts of America will be voting on a new policy that would lift the ban on gay scouts, while still banning gay and lesbian leaders. It’s a step in the right direction, but still an insult to gay scouts who will never be able to become leaders, and to those who have lesbian or gay parents, as I wrote when they first proposed it. Take action today to tell the Boy Scouts to allow gay scouts and leaders.
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Highest Percentages of Same-Sex Couples with Kids Are in States Without Marriage Equality
A new infographic from the industrious demographers at UCLA’s Williams Institute shows that the states and metro areas with the highest percentages of same-sex couples raising children are ones that have a constitutional ban on marriage.
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Thinking of Oklahoma
Tonight, I am thinking of the friends I have whose family and friends live in Moore, Oklahoma. A tornado ripped through and destroyed two elementary schools, a hospital, and unnamed other buildings earlier today. The latest numbers from MSNBC say that seven elementary school students are among the dead, and another 30 are unaccounted for.
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Your Monday “Arrgh”: Judge Orders Lesbian Mom’s Partner to Move Out Because They’re Not Married
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.
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Minnesota Proves 13 Is Lucky
Minnesota will today become the 12th state to legalize marriage for same-sex couples—the 13th if one counts the District of Columbia—after the state Senate voted yesterday (May 13, 2013) to pass a marriage equality bill. Lucky 13.
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Bill Reintroduced in Congress to Prevent LGBT Discrimination, Give More Children Homes
Over 400,000 children are in foster care in the U.S., with over 100,000 of them eligible for adoption—and yet otherwise qualified LGBT prospective parents still face discrimination and legal restrictions in adoption and foster care. A bill being reintroduced in Congress this week seeks to change that.
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Victory for Lesbian Moms in Iowa!
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) must provide an accurate two-parent birth certificate to any child born to married lesbian parents in Iowa. Same-sex couples have been able to marry in Iowa since April 2009—but the IDPH has refused to recognize both members of a same-sex couple as parents of children born to them. They can do so no longer.
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11-Year-Old Boy Writes: “Please Don’t Let [My Mom] Get Fired Because She Is Gay”
Joe is an 11-year-old boy who lives with his mom in Pennsylvania. He recently wrote a letter to his member of Congress, asking, “Please don’t let [my mom] get fired because she is gay.”
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Binational Lesbian Moms Fight to Keep Family Together
The French National Assembly and a Rhode Island Senate committee each passed a marriage equality bill yesterday, making them likely to become law in both places. The Delaware House also passed one on to the Senate, and the Nevada Senate took the first step towards repealing its constitutional ban on marriage for same-sex couples. Good news. But for Ariana and Diana, two lesbian moms, only a repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and a reform of immigration law will allow them to keep their family together without the risk of deportation.
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Boy Scouts’ Proposed Policy Still An Insult
The Boy Scouts of America have proposed a policy change that would allow gay Scouts in their ranks, but would continue to deny leadership positions to “open or avowed homosexuals.” This policy is both a step forward and a slap in the face.
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To End the Silence
Today marks the 16th annual Day of Silence, an event sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), where students from middle school to college take some form of a vow of silence to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment. But a federal bill reintroduced yesterday that would prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination, harassment, bullying, and violence in public schools faces a tough road ahead.
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From Boston, Thinking of My Family and All Our Families
My thoughts today are with the victims of the Boston Marathon tragedy, their families, and friends. My family and I live outside of Boston, and we consider the city almost as much our home as we do the suburb where our house stands. In college, I proudly joined the Wellesley College “Scream Tunnel” to cheer on the runners. Two days ago, my spouse and I spent the afternoon walking around the city, noting the crowd-control barricades already in place for the race in Copley Square.
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“Science Led to Gay Families”? Not Exactly
An article for CNN yesterday ran the headline “Science led to gay families: Law should follow.” I’m the last person to argue that our families shouldn’t have equal legal rights—but the headline is overstating science’s role and inadvertently perpetuating a dangerous myth about same-sex parents. The article’s author, Debora L. Spar, is president of Barnard [...]
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Haiku for the Supreme Court
It’s National Poetry Month, and in its honor, I’ve composed two haiku to the highest court in the land.
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Anti-Gay or Anti-Miscegenation?
Amid the wave of marriage equality news and posts this week, this one from Mediaite stood out for me for the way it cleverly shows the similarities between anti-gay and anti-miscegenation quotes. Here’s another scary quote on the same theme, related to children’s books.
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An Answer for Justice Alito: Look to the Past
At yesterday’s U. S. Supreme Court hearing on marriage equality, Justice Samuel Alito asked, “But you want us to step in and render a decision based on an assessment of the effects of this institution [same-sex marriage] which is newer than cell phones or the Internet? I mean we—we are not—we do not have the ability to see the future.” I have an answer for him.
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Children of Same-Sex Parents Speak Out for Equality
Children and adults with same-sex parents have been in the headlines lately by speaking up for marriage equality, making their voices heard all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. We parents should be proud—but should also keep some things in mind before our children make public statements about our families.
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Sixth-Grader Testifies for Family at Rhode Island Marriage Equality Hearing
Marriage equality will be the issue of the week, with the U.S. Supreme Court hearing two cases on the matter Tuesday and Wednesday. Let’s get into the swing of things with this video of sixth-grader Matthew Lannon, who lives with his two moms, two dads, and sister in Rhode Island, testifying at that state’s Senate hearing on marriage equality last Thursday.
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