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When President Obama first announced his support for marriage equality yesterday, he mentioned that his new view was motivated in part by same-sex couples who are raising kids together. In a campaign e-mail later yesterday evening, he said again that he was influenced by the children same-sex parents. His daughters have friends with same-sex parents, he added, and the girls assume that their families should be treated equally:
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BREAKING NEWS: President Barack Obama, in an interview with ABC News this afternoon, announced, “I’ve just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”
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North Carolina Votes to Ban Same-Sex Relationship Recognition Under State Constitution
North Carolina voters have approved a state constitutional amendment that bans not only marriage for same-sex couples, but also any form of relationship recognition. The state already banned marriage for same-sex couples by statute; putting it into the state constitution makes it harder to challenge.
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Sometimes it’s good to be reminded of how far we’ve come. In 1995, Floridian Mary Ward lost custody of their daughter to her ex-husband, even though he had been absent from the girl’s life for six years—and been convicted of murdering his first wife in a custody dispute. Why did the judge not award custody to Ward? She was a lesbian. Now, a new documentary tells the sobering story of the case.
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GLAD Publishes Transgender Family Law Book
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) has just announced the publication of Transgender Family Law: A Guide to Effective Advocacy, “the first book to comprehensively address legal issues facing transgender people in the family law context and provide practitioners the tools to effectively represent transgender clients.”
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Quote of the Week: “We Are Already Parents”
This week’s quote comes from Catherine Couvert, a lesbian mom in Northern Ireland, who addresses her country’s failure to move ahead with a proposal allowing joint adoption by same-sex and unmarried couples.
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Marriage inequality harms children. Obvious to most readers here, I imagine—but the right-wing has long owned the “best interests of the children” argument in advertising and media. Now, however, one LGBT advocacy coalition is taking back that argument, in hopes of defeating yet another state constitutional ban on marriage for same-sex couples, this time Amendment One in North Carolina. See their new ad after the jump.
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A Taxing Problem for Same-Sex Families
Today is the deadline for filing 2011 U.S. tax returns. In a timely piece, Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida (and a mom to the adorable boy who met First Lady Michelle Obama recently), writes about federal tax inequality for same-sex couples. She gives us our quote of the week:
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Weekly Political Roundup
The Defense of Marriage Act faces a federal appeals court; a pro-marriage equality initiative advances in Ohio; Chile passes an antidiscrimination measure, and more.
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Lesbian Mom Running for President
In a move that may shake up this year’s presidential race, suburban lesbian mom Jess Jo King has announced her intention to run for president on the 2012 ballot.
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White House Features Photo of Lesbian Mom with First Lady
The White House photostream now includes a photo of First Lady Michelle Obama with Andrea and Logan Smith (10 months). Andrea is the executive director of Green Florida and wife of Equality Florida executive director Nadine Smith—and their son is absolutely adorable. (It’s all about the cheeks. Or maybe the eyes. Total cuteness either way.)
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U.S. Customs to Allow Same-Sex Couples to File Joint Customs Declarations
Many of us have been in this situation: Returning to the U.S. from a family vacation abroad, we stand in the customs line with partner and kid(s), only to be separated when it is our turn and the customs agent only allows “one family at a time”—meaning “only one federally recognized family.” Suddenly, all of our vacation relaxation is gone.
That will soon change.
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Weekly Political Roundup
This week’s roundup is brought to you by the letter “N,” with happenings in Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Nigeria (as well as a few non-N places).
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Weekly Political Roundup
Marriage equality took center stage again this week, but that’s not all that’s happening.
– A federal district court ruled that a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)–the part that denies federal recognition to same-sex couples–is unconstitutional. But the the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group said it will appeal the ruling.
– Opponents of marriage equality have asked the full U.S. 9th Circuit court to review the recent decision of a three-judge court panel that ruled California’s Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.
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Lesbian Mom Demolishes DOMA
Yesterday, a federal district court ruled that a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)—the part that denies federal recognition to same-sex couples—is unconstitutional. The plaintiff in the case, Karen Golinski, is an attorney and lesbian mom. I interviewed her last December about her accidental path to the DOMA challenge and the case’s impact on her family.
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History Is Written By the Victors: Gay Memorabilia at the Smithsonian
I spent President’s Day weekend with my family in a most appropriate place: Washington, D.C. I’m still catching up on laundry and such, so for today, please enjoy an image from our visit to the National Museum of American History. The museum, part of the Smithsonian, is now the repository for the papers and materials of LGBT equality pioneer Frank Kameny, as explained in a museum blog post last October.
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Son of Prop 8 Plaintiffs Talks About Marriage Ban Impact on His Family
Spencer Perry, the 17-year-old son of plaintiffs Kris Perry and Sandy Steir, lead plaintiffs in the Proposition 8 case to win marriage equality in California, talked at a press conference recently about the impact of Prop 8 on his family.
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Same-Sex Parents Under Fire in Iowa, Despite Marriage
The state of Iowa has made two moves this week that challenge the rights of same-sex parents.
First, Governor Terry Branstad’s (R) administration announced it will appeal a state district court ruling that said a child born to a lesbian couple married in that state has the right to have the names of both her parents on her birth certificate.
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Prop 8 Ruled Unconstitutional: One Step Closer to Equality
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has just ruled that Proposition 8, California’s ban on marriage of same-sex couples, is unconstitutional. The law “serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.”
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Teen of Gay Dads — and Her Grandfather — Testify for Marriage Equality in NJ
Madison Galluccio, who has two gay dads, gave emotional testimony last Thursday at the New Jersey Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing on marriage equality. Her grandfather followed, with heartfelt testimony of his own.
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Weekly Political Roundup
Lots of marriage-related news this week. I do like to cover other political topics here, but this week just happens to be matrimonially inclined.
A broad coalition of civil rights, labor, progressive, faith, student, health, legal, women’s, and LGBT organizations, led by Freedom to Marry and HRC, announced support of the federal Respect for Marriage Act that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
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An Ugly Shade of Pink: Susan G. Komen and the Politicizing of Cancer
As most of you have likely heard by now, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the country’s leading breast cancer charity, is revoking its grant to Planned Parenthood.
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Discrimination Means Children with LGBT Parents May Face Extra Economic Hardships
There’s a myth that LGBT parents are all affluent—a myth perpetuated by many in the media, who tend to focus on upper-middle and upper class families when they do LGBT family stories. The reality is much different. Children being raised by same-sex couples are in fact twice as likely to live in poverty as those being [...]
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Seeking Binational Same-Sex Couples Raising Children
Passing along this message from Immigration Equality, a national organization fighting for equality under U.S. immigration law for LGBT and HIV-positive individuals. They are seeking binational same-sex couples with children for an awareness campaign. Please respond to them at the link below if you are interested. Immigration Equality is hoping to find binational couples, who are [...]
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“Hate Is Not an Expert Opinion”: New Project Holds Anti-LGBT Commentators Accountable
Many of us have seen them: anti-LGBT “experts” who appear on the news spouting supposed “facts” about LGBT people—”facts” that are nothing more than fabrications or distortions wrapped in bias. Many of their arguments center around the supposed unsuitability of LGBT people to be parents. We might expect such people on certain conservative-leaning news channels, but when they appear even on more moderate ones, it can be infuriating.
GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, today announced the launch of its Commentator Accountability Project, which aims “to educate the media about the extreme rhetoric of over three dozen activists who are often given a platform to speak in opposition to LGBT people and the issues that affect their lives.”
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