Gay parents along with kids celebrate in annual parade
SAN FRANCISCO — Hundreds of thousands of people turned out for the city’s annual Gay Pride Parade, some in provocative costumes and outfits, but an increasing number of them pushing strollers. “I feel like I’ve seen twice as many children as I saw last year,” said Joseph Bowik, who is a father to two children with his husband, David Bowik. The Pride Family Garden, a small park cordoned off near City Hall to give parents a respite and an area for their children to play, saw more than 600 families last year, a record that appeared set to be broken during this year’s parade, organizer Meredith Fenton said. “Probably the biggest thing we’re hearing about this year from kids is the word ‘backlash,’”‰” said Fenton, who is the program director for Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE), which joined the park effort. “With Prop. 8 passing and the Defense of Marriage Act, there’s so much talk about gay rights, but what people keep asking is, ‘How will the kids of gay parents turn out?’ Those people are all asking about us.” San Francisco and Alameda counties are home to the second- and third-most same-sex couples who are parents in California, after Los Angeles, Fenton said. Diana Castillo, 18, moved to Oakland this summer for an internship at Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere. Raised by her birth mother and her mother’s partner, she said growing up with two moms made her grateful.
See:
- Gay parents along with kids celebrate in annual parade San Jose Mercury News – –
- Video: Gay pride on the streets
- Remembering Stonewall: 40 Years Later Gay Wired Gay Pride Parade Marks 40 Years After NYC Uprising WDIV
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Alameda school board adopts plan to halt anti-gay bullying
School district leaders have approved lesson plans for kindergartners through fifth graders that aim to curb anti-gay bullying. Trustees voted 3-2 on Tuesday to adopt the Safe Schools curriculum, which supporters say will help children of gay parents feel welcome at school and help end anti-gay teasing and bullying on the playground. The lessons also aim to provide a safe environment for children to learn, as well as to offer a framework for teachers to break down stereotypes and teach kids about different types of families. “The need for this is real,” said Beth Kromer, a fourth-grade teacher at Ruby Bridges Elementary School. Brian Harris, a 16-year-old student at the Alameda Community Learning Center, told trustees that he has been called anti-gay epithets on campus. “I have been harassed by other students in the classroom and I have even begun to consider just stopping and giving up on life,” Harris said. Opponents of the curriculum said it would undercut parents’ rights to teach their children about relationships and sexual orientation, and that it pushed a political agenda without addressing ways to help other groups who may be singled out at school. Trustee Trish Spencer, who voted no, said she was concerned that lessons about other vulnerable students were not on the table.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/alameda-schoo…
Gay adoption before Fla. Legislature, courts
The state Legislature is faced with a bill aimed at overturning the state’s 1977 ban on gay adoption, and Florida’s Third District Court of Appeals must resolve a lawsuit over the issue stemming from Gill’s case. The case is likely to move on to the Florida Supreme Court.
The court case will likely resolve questions posed by gay rights advocates before the bill does.
The legislation is expected to die without coming to a vote before the Legislature adjourns next week.
“This year the bill is not going to be going anywhere to be honest with you,” said the sponsor, Sen. Nan Rich, D-Sunrise. “The best chance to get a change in this state … will be with Gill.”
The high court will hold preliminary hearings soon on Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman’s ruling that allowed Gill to adopt the boys in November. Her ruling said the ban violates equal protection rights for the children and their prospective gay parents.
See Gay adoption before Fla. Legislature, courts
MiamiHerald.com
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If we don’t act decisively, America’s next Proposition 8 could happen in Iowa.
If we don’t act decisively, America’s next Proposition 8 could happen in Iowa.
While key Iowa leaders have been defending this decision, successfully staving off a marriage ban for now, it’s critical that they hear public support as the right-wing onslaught continues – fueled by this week’s marriage victory in Vermont. Send a message thanking Iowa’s leaders and urging them to resist right-wing pressure.
But the right wing campaign isn’t stopping – and if it happened in California, it can happen in Iowa.
They are reportedly out-emailing us two to one in Iowa. They’ve held rallies in front of the state capitol. And with every email, phone call, editorial, or ad, it becomes more politically difficult for lawmakers to stay strong. That’s why we need to act now.
Joe Solmonese
President, HRC
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/if-we-dont-ac…
Professional groups back gay marriage BurlingtonFreePress.com
Same-sex marriage rights got an endorsement Monday from four Vermont professional organizations who cited research findings that “children of lesbian and gay parents are as likely as those of heterosexual parents to flourish.”
They also said gay and lesbian parents are as likely as their heterosexual counterparts to provide healthy environments for children and that “there is no credible scientific evidence” relating parenting effectiveness to sexual orientation.
Their statement, which comes as the Vermont legislature prepares to consider same-sex marriage legislation, was released at a news conference called by the Vermont Psychological Association, the Vermont Psychiatric Association, the Vermont Association of Mental Health Counselors and the Vermont chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
Speaking on the organizations’ behalf, Jackie Weinstock, an associate professor in the department of integrated professional studies at the University of Vermont, said the groups wanted to “set the record straight” by rebutting contentions by gay-marriage opponents that children raised by single-sex parents fare less well than their counterparts in heterosexual families.
“No study has shown that outcomes for children of single-sex families are any less positive than outcomes for children in heterosexual families,” Weinstock said. She said contrary findings sometimes cited by opponents apply in part to children of divorced parents, not exclusively to children of single-sex parents. She acknowledged that national studies of children in same-sex parents have been limited by small research samples. See Professional groups back gay marriage BurlingtonFreePress.com
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‘Tired’ Fox stepping down from Butler County Children Services Oxford Press
Controversial director sho favors straight over gay parents says he’s ‘tired’ after more than 1½ years on the job and will retire March 31.
Butler County Children Services Director Michael Fox plans to end his epic and controversial career March 31.
Fox said Friday, March 6, in an exclusive interview he’s “tired,” and can do more good as a private activist than an agency director.
“I plan to continue being an advocate for children and families, and doing whatever I can to make the system better,” Fox said. “I think at this point I can be more effective outside the system.”
See ‘Tired’ Fox stepping down from Butler County Children Services Oxford Press
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Gay parents row splits French government Indopia
A French bill granting rights to stepparents sparked a row in government today when a minister described it as an under-handed way of recognising gay parents and vowed to fight the measure.
Housing Minister Christine Boutin, a staunch Catholic and vocal opponent of gay rights in France, said the proposed legislation contained provisions on homosexual couples that were surreptitiously included.
“I will not accept that we recognise homosexual parenting and adoptions by homosexual couples in an under-handed way,”said Boutin in a statement.
“ Recognising the status of stepparents will lead to the de facto recognition of homosexual parenting and adoptions by homosexual couples,”she said.
President Nicolas Sarkozy last month announced the new legislation giving stepparents rights over the children they raise, saying it would bring the law in step with the modern reality of reconstituted families. See Gay parents row splits French government Indopia
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/gay-parents-r…
Louisiana to appeal gay parent ruling
(New Orleans, Louisiana) The state of Louisiana is preparing to appeal a federal court ruling that both names of a gay couple must appear on the birth certificate of their adopted son.
Louisiana Health Secretary Alan Levine said that the court ordered the state to do more than what the US Constitution …
