It’s the slow time of summer, but there’s still LGBTQ parenting news to be had. Here’s some for your reading (and listening!) pleasure.
Politics and Law
- Luis and Joseph Serrano, a gay couple in Bozeman, Montana, have filed a complaint with the Montana Human Rights Bureau, charging that state employees discriminated against them on the basis of sex and their marital status as a same-sex couple, after they lost custody of a child they were fostering.
- The Michigan Supreme Court last week refused to take an appeal of a lower court decision that denied parental recognition to a nonbiological mother. Slate has the details.
- Family leave laws need to recognize other important caring relationships, in addition to those of spouses and parents-children, writes Chelsey Engel at HuffPo.
- Australia’s new online census form doesn’t offer options for people to indicate if they have same-sex parents, which could lead to same-sex-headed families being rendered invisible.
- In good news from Down Under, however, the government of Queensland, Australia will propose a bill allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. Queensland and the Northern Territory are the only remaining territories with such a ban.
Personal Stories
- Lesbian mom Jordan Namerow looks at the impact a Hillary Clinton presidency could have on her son.
- Jennifer Hauseman’s essay on open adoption, “Three Mothers, One Bond,” was made into a podcast for NPR’s Modern Love series, and read by Gabriella Hoffman (Transparent).
- Lesléa Newman, author of Heather Has Two Mommies
(1989), and Christine Baldacchino, author of Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress
(2014), talk with Slate about the challenges and joys they’ve faced in publishing and promoting their books.