As we head into the holidays, here are some of the LGBTQ parenting stories making headlines around the world.
Politics and Law: U.S.
- Family Equality Council has offered its analysis of the recent Arkansas Supreme Court decision that said same-sex spouses have no constitutional right to both be on their children’s birth certificates. “The opinion of this Court was clearly written to achieve a particular ideological objective, without regard for the actual facts and constitutional principles,” writes Denise Brogan-Kator, Family Equality’s director of state policy.
- A New Jersey judge ruled that Valarie Benning, the partner of I’Asia Moreland, whose two-year-old daughter was killed by a truck in 2009 as they all crossed the street, can’t recover damages for emotional distress. The Trentonian reports, “The judge pointed out in his ruling the couple wasn’t engaged at the time of the crash, without acknowledging they couldn’t legally get hitched in 2009.” They had been dating for a year and a half, however, and the girl called Benning “Mom.” The judge wrote, “Just using the word ‘mom’ all by itself doesn’t count for much.”
- A two-mom couple in Rhode Island has won a case against a family court that had tried to require them to post a newspaper advertisement to alert their unknown sperm donor before they could get a second-parent adoption. The women, helped by GLAD, argued that they should not have to adopt their child at all. The ultimate decision acknowledged both parents through a court order, without the need for an adoption.
Politics and Law: International
- Same-sex parents now account for one in ten adoptions in the U.K., up from less than five percent in 2012, reports Pink News.
- Bills that would grant same-sex couples the right to adopt or have a child through surrogacy have passed South Australia’s Legislative Council, its Upper House. They have already passed the Lower House, and will become law, although two amendments will go back to the Lower House for approval: One from an anti-LGBTQ group that would allow assisted reproduction providers the right to conscientiously object to providing services based on the patient’s sexual orientation, and one in response to it that would require those who refused treatment to be placed on a public list.
- For the first time, a family court in Israel has ruled that both members of a same-sex couple should be recognized as the legal parents of their children from the moment of birth.
Family Profiles
- Rhiannon Stevens has been a surrogate for her brother Clinton Bryan-Mathieson and his partner Callum—twice. The U.K.’s Independent profiles them.
Books and Media
- Two LGBTQ-inclusive books made Tablet magazine’s list of “The Best Jewish Children’s Books of 2016“: The picture book The Flower Girl Wore Celery
, about a girl attending a same-sex wedding; and the chapter book Lily and Duncan
, about two eighth graders, one of whom is transgender. Also on the list is the board book Hanukkah Delight!
, which isn’t LGBTQ inclusive but is by Lesléa Newman, author of the classic (and recently updated) Heather Has Two Mommies
.
- Queer mom Paige Schilt’s memoir Queer Rock Love
also made a best-of list: the prestigious Kirkus Reviews‘ “Best Indie Books of 2016.”
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