Category: Family and Parenting

Florida GOP candidate trifecta: no gay marriage, adoption, or foster parenting

LGBTQ Nation • Tuesday, August 10, 2010 • Filed under: Family and Parenting, Florida • Comments (0)

Bill McCollum, Florida’s Attorney General and a Republican candidate for Governor, has made it clear he supports his state’s ban on gay adoption, and he doesn’t think gay people should be allowed to be foster parents, either.

McCollum

In an interview published in the Florida Baptist Witness, McCollum, who was embarrassed earlier this year when his key witness fighting Florida’s ban on gay adoption, Dr. George Rekers, was caught taking a European vacation with a male escort, said that he disagreed with Florida law that allows gays to serve as foster parents.

From the Florida Baptist Witness:

Do you support civil rights protections on the basis of sexual preference?

McCollum: I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. I believe that a family should consist of one man and one woman. I don’t believe in gay adoption. I don’t believe in involving the government in enforcing or encouraging the lifestyle of gays and homosexuals. I just don’t believe that.

Florida permits homosexuals to serve as foster parents. That has been used as an argument to undermine the ban on adoptions. Should homosexuals be permitted to serve as foster parents in Florida?

Well, I personally don’t think so, but that is the law.

Should the law be changed?

I think that it would be advisable. I really do not think that we should have homosexuals guiding our children. I think that it’s a lifestyle that I don’t agree with. I realize a lot of people do. It’s my personal faith, religious faith, that I don’t believe that the people who do this should be raising our children. It’s not a natural thing. You need a mother and a father. You need a man and a woman. That’s what God intended.

Early voting began Monday for the Florida Primary Election on August 24.

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Saving LGBTQ youth should be our top priority

Kelvin Lynch • Monday, July 19, 2010 • Filed under: Education, Family and Parenting, Views & Voices • Comments (0)

LGBTQ youth are more prone to depression and suicide due to bullying and discrimination in school

As we fight for equal rights – rights to which every citizen of this nation is entitled – we should be careful not to become so engrossed in these issues that we forget where we came from, the place that shaped us into who we are and motivates us even now to defeat bigotry and hate and make this nation truly great.

It’s a reasonable argument that our collective experiences in school during our most formative years made us the fighters and advocates we are today.  So many of us remember the hostility, ridicule, discrimination, and maybe even the beatings we had to endure beginning around middle school and following us throughout high school. The sort of horrors no young person should have to endure, at the hands of bigots and bullies who were our peers and teachers alike.  How many times did we have to walk down the hall to threats of physical violence, while school personnel just stood by watching and listening, doing nothing to come to our aid? Continue reading…

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LGBT binational families seek UAFA inclusiveness

Kelvin Lynch • Thursday, July 15, 2010 • Filed under: Family and Parenting, National Agenda • Comments (0)

Families like Shirley Tan's (second from left) would benefit from an LGBT-inclusive UAFA

Did you know approximately 17,000 children are being raised by LGBT parents in binational families, and those children face the very real possibility of losing a parent, or leaving the only country they have ever called home? It’s true. And if the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) passes without language including LGBT families, that’s exactly what might happen.

The UAFA was introduced in the House by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and in the Senate by Patrick Leahy (D-VT) this past February, and has 124 co-sponsors.  The bill will amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate discrimination in immigration laws, by permitting permanent partners of US citizens and lawful permanent residents to obtain lawful permanent resident status, the same way as spouses of citizens and lawful permanent residents. It will also penalize immigration fraud in connection with permanent partnerships. Continue reading…

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Obama administration to expand family, medical leave benefits to same-sex parents

LGBTQ Nation • Monday, June 21, 2010 • Filed under: Family and Parenting, Health and Wellness, National Agenda • Comments (0)

President Obama is taking another step to expand the rights of gay workers by allowing them to take family and medical leave to care for sick or newborn children of same-sex partners, administration officials annoiunced Monday.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is scheduled to make the announcement on Wednesday that will require employers to allow gay employees the same unpaid time off for family or personal matters that’s been given to heterosexual workers for almost 20 years.

The new regulations will require businesses of 50 or more employees to abide by an expanded interpretation of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, which provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave within a 12-month period for employees to care for family members with medical needs, including childbirth. This expansion applies only to caring for children. Continue reading…

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Parents say 11-year-old daughter denied medical treatment because she has ‘two moms’

LGBTQ Nation • Sunday, May 9, 2010 • Filed under: Education, Family and Parenting, New Mexico • Comments (7)

The parents of an 11-year-old student in Rancho Rio, NM, are planning a civil rights lawsuit against their daughter’s school for failing to provide her treatment following a playground accident because, they say, she has “two moms.”

Jenna

On February 26, Jenna Bissell says she sat in her fifth-grade class at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School for hours with a gash on her face, dried blood between her loosened permanent teeth, cut lips and a swollen nose after she tripped on the playground.

According to Jenna, her teacher never asked about her injuries or sent her to the nurse, and instead was just told to “go clean yourself off you are gross” by her teacher. Continue reading…

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NY Court of Appeals expands rights for same-sex parents

LGBTQ Nation • Friday, May 7, 2010 • Filed under: Family and Parenting, New York • Comments (0)

Under a new ruling by New York’s highest court this week, same-sex parents are guaranteed consideration for custody or visitation in the event of divorce or death.

Previously, the non-biological partner had these rights, but only if that parent legally adopted the shared child.

But the court limited its rulings, and declined to resolve two cases involving lesbian parents and instead sent both back to lower courts, saying that the question of whether nonbiological parents should be given full parental rights was up to the State Legislature.

The rulings reflect the expanding affirmation by the Court of Appeals of rights for gays and lesbians. The court has generally ruled that short of same-sex marriage, gay and lesbian couples can enjoy a broad range of legal protections.

While same-sex marriages are not legal in New York, the state does recognize same-sex unions performed in other states.

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Gay couple wins legal battle over birth certificate of adopted child

LGBTQ Nation • Friday, February 19, 2010 • Filed under: Family and Parenting • Comments (0)

A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a California couple’s quest for a birth certificate for their adopted son that includes both fathers’ names

Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith, who adopted a Louisiana-born baby boy in 2006 through a court in New York, filed suit in 2007 after they were refused the certificate by Louisiana registrar Darlene W. Smith, citing state laws barring unmarried couples from adopting children in Louisiana.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that that Louisiana is required to give “full faith and credit” to the New York adoption decree, upholding the 2008 judgment of the district court. Continue reading…

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Rosie O’Donnell’s new HBO documentary to focus on diverse families

LGBTQ Nation • Friday, January 29, 2010 • Filed under: Family and Parenting, Television • Comments (0)

In her new HBO documentary, Rosie O’Donnell brings together a diverse group of families, letting the kids offer their candid and humorous insights about what being a family means.

Produced by O’Donnell, who also makes a brief appearance, A Family Is a Family Is a Family is a documentary where kids in nontraditional families talk about their lives.

The film also features musical elements (inspired by Marlo Thomas’ 1970s kids’ TV special Free to Be… You and Me) celebrating the love and support found in families of all kinds.

“I think kids in general say the truth,” O’Donnell said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

“Not only are the kids in this cute, they are poignant,” she said. “What they are asking for is safety, security and acceptance: That their families are just as valid as anyone else’s should they be raised by a grandmother, a mom and a dad, two dads, or one mom. Whatever makes up your family, it is valid and worthy and it should be cherished and respected.”

Continue reading…

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Florida judge approves lesbian couple adoption despite state’s ban

LGBTQ Nation • Thursday, January 28, 2010 • Filed under: Family and Parenting, Florida • Comments (0)

Florida’s outdated gay adoption ban took another hit after a Miami judge approved the adoption by a lesbian couple.

Alenier, right, and Leon, with their adopted son.
(Miami Herald photo)

Vanessa Alenier and Melanie Leon of Hollywood, FL, became the third gay couple in the last year to be approved to adopt, directly contradicting the state’s 1977 law against it, according to the Miami Herald.

Alenier, 34, said she did not want to begin her journey as a parent with a lie. So she told the truth, acknowledging she was gay on the adoption application — despite Florida’s 33-year-old law banning gay men and lesbians from adopting.

Earlier this month — as a Miami appeals court determines the constitutionality of the embattled adoption ban — a judge quietly approved the 1-year-old’s adoption. The decision by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia is the third finalized adoption by a gay couple within the last year.

While the 1977 law remains in limbo, Sampedro-Iglesia’s ruling suggests some state court judges already have made up their minds about gay adoption, a thorny political issue in a state with a significant social conservative streak.

The Florida Department of Children & Families says it is currently deciding whether to appeal the judge’s decision.

Previously, a judge in Key West, Monroe Circuit Judge David J. Audlin, struck the first blow to the statute on Aug. 29, 2008, when he signed a 67-page order declaring the law unconstitutional. Audlin’s order cleared the way for a Key West lawyer, Wayne LaRue Smith, to adopt a boy he had been raising in foster care.

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‘In the Life’ presents excerpt from documentary on gay adoption

LGBTQ Nation • Friday, November 6, 2009 • Filed under: Family and Parenting, Television • Comments (0)

Preachers_SonsOver 500,000 children in the United States are in foster care. More than 100,000 children await adoption. Despite this growing need, some states currently restrict gay adoption.

This month, In the Life presents the introductory excerpt of the film “Preacher’s Sons” a provocative, real-life story that spans five years in the lives of two gay dads and the five boys they adopt from California’s foster care system.

This intimate look at an unlikely family transcends all political convictions, revealing the struggles, humor and love that unites all families. Filmmaker, C. Roebuck Reed also shares her experience making this film about a non-traditional family and gay adoption.

The In the Life broadcast includes the first 20 minutes of the 90-minute film:


The full documentary file, the “Preacher’s Sons” is available for purchase at the film’s website.

In the Life currently airs in more than 34 states on more than 240 stations. Click here to locate the time and channel of the broadcast in your area. Online broadcast courtesy of InTheLifeTV.org.

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