DC Law Helps Lesbian Couples Become Moms
A new D.C. law is making it a lot easier for a newborn to have two mommies from birth. According to the law, which went into effect on July 18, the District of Columbia will confer “the status of legal parent on both lesbian mothers who plan a child using donor insemination,” Nancy Polikoff reports.
In the past, the birth mother’s partner would have to go through an adoption process to become a legal parent of the child; now, the second mommy just needs to fill out some paperwork to demonstrate her “written consent” of parenthood. Polikoff notes that the new law is “marital status-neutral and gender-neutral,” so it will change parenthood policy in a couple of other situations as well:
See DC Law Helps Lesbian Couples Become Moms Washington City Paper
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Could Gay Lt. Gov Rumors Be Playing in Favor of Cheating SC Governor?
The bombshell revelation that South Carolina governor Mark Sanford had disappeared to Argentina for a rendezvous with an extramarital romantic interest has failed to elicit calls fro the governor’s resignation from the state’s top officials-in part due to Bauer’s politics, though another factor may also be at work: rumors that the state’s Lieutenant Governor, Andre Bauer, is gay.
Bauer’s sexuality has been a topic of speculation before, most recently when openly lesbian South Carolina politician Linda Ketner, a failed candidate for one of the state’s congressional seats, “outed” several state officials, including Bauer, igniting a controversy about airing and repeating such allegations publicly. See Could Gay Lt. Gov Rumors Be Playing in Favor of Cheating SC Governor?
EDGE Boston
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Could Gay Lt. Gov Rumors Be Playing in Favor of Cheating SC Governor?
The bombshell revelation that South Carolina governor Mark Sanford had disappeared to Argentina for a rendezvous with an extramarital romantic interest has failed to elicit calls fro the governor’s resignation from the state’s top officials-in part due to Bauer’s politics, though another factor may also be at work: rumors that the state’s Lieutenant Governor, Andre Bauer, is gay.
Bauer’s sexuality has been a topic of speculation before, most recently when openly lesbian South Carolina politician Linda Ketner, a failed candidate for one of the state’s congressional seats, “outed” several state officials, including Bauer, igniting a controversy about airing and repeating such allegations publicly. See Could Gay Lt. Gov Rumors Be Playing in Favor of Cheating SC Governor?
EDGE Boston
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Gay rights mean different things to different generations of community
Before there were domestic-partnership registries and commitment ceremonies, before same-sex marriages and civil unions — before the gay-rights movement, even — John McCluskey and Rudy Henry met, fell in love and harbored the notion that they could spend their lives making one another happy.
And for 50 years, the Tacoma men went about doing just that, all the while longing for social acceptance.
Even in gay-friendly San Francisco where they first lived together, they found it necessary to hide their relationship from prospective landlords, and on job applications they would sometimes lie about their marital status to avoid raising suspicion.
Decades later in 2006, at a coffee-shop concert on Seattle’s Capitol Hill, Amy Balliett and Jessica Trejo met and they, too, eventually fell in love.
In their 20s, the two had come out as lesbians at a time when young people could find support in groups on high school and college campuses, when they had gay role models in politics and on television, and when their parents probably knew people who were openly gay. By the time the two married in California last October, legal bonds between gays and lesbians were possible in several states.
Balliett and Trejo, Henry and McCluskey are like generational bookends to this modern gay-rights movement, launched 40 years ago this week after a group of activists at a small Manhattan bar called the Stonewall Inn stood up in violent protest to ongoing police harassment.
While older gays and younger ones share much the same agenda of equality, their needs within the movement are also divergent.
Young people, who have at times referred to their own post-gay movement, seek the protections of marriage equality as they form relationships and start families, while gays of their grandparents’ generation are more concerned about issues of aging — like survivor benefits and long-term care.
See Gay rights mean different things to different generations of community
Seattle Times -
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Unanimous California Supreme Court Rejects Attempt to Limit Discrimination Claims by People with Disabilities
‘The Court’s decision furthers the Unruh Act’s purpose to eradicate arbitrary and invidious discrimination from California’s business establishments.’
(San Francisco, June 11, 2009) — Today the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act does not impose extra legal hurdles for people with disabilities, including people living with HIV who seek damages for discrimination.
Statement from Tara Borelli, Staff Attorney at Lambda Legal and a principal author of the friend-of-the court brief Lambda Legal submitted urging today’s legal result in Munson v. Del Taco:
“The Court rightly rejected efforts to misread the Unruh Civil Rights Act to impose extra legal hurdles which would have harmed all disabled Californians who face discrimination in public accommodations, including those living with HIV.
“Real, reliable change for people with disabilities has been painfully slow in coming but the high court’s decision today promises greater fairness in California. The Court’s decision furthers the Unruh Act’s purpose to eradicate arbitrary and invidious discrimination from California’s business establishments.
“Though this case does not directly involve people living with HIV, the application of this decision will be helpful to all people living with disabilities who encounter discrimination, which includes many Californians living with HIV.”
Background on Munson v. Del Taco:
Kenneth Munson, a wheelchair user, filed suit against Del Taco, Inc. alleging violations of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and California’s Unruh Act. Munson’s suit is based on claims arising from visits he made to one Del Taco restaurant, where he encountered architectural barriers to his use of the parking lot and restroom.
Background on Unruh Civil Rights Act:
California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act requires that public accommodations — businesses such as restaurants, rental housing, and doctors’ offices — are open to everyone, without arbitrary discrimination based on disability (including HIV), sex (including gender identity), sexual orientation, marital status, race or several other personal characteristics. Similarly, the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) forbids denying disabled people equal access to public places. In 1992, California revised the Unruh Act to better protect disabled Californians from discrimination by saying that a plaintiff who proves an ADA violation has also proven a state law violation.
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Mike Gin, Redondo Beach’s Chinese-American, Rotarian, Gay Mayor
After months of living legal limbo, Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin’s marriage was finally declared legal several days ago by the California Supreme Court. But marital validation was no tonic for Gin, who wasn’t celebrating the landmark decisions on same-sex marriage issued last week by the California Supreme Court.
“It’s a bittersweet feeling,” he admits. “My husband and I are thrilled about that part of the ruling that affects us, but there are many other couples now who cannot share in the happiness that we were able to experience on our wedding day. I’m hoping that someday all of us can experience that same happiness.”
Gin and his husband, Christopher Kreidel, were part of the pool of approximately 18,000 gay people married after the California Supreme Court ruled a year ago that same-sex marriages were legal, but before the Proposition 8 vote last fall banned same-sex marriage.
Despite the ruling early last week upholding Prop. 8, he is not discouraged. He notes that Prop. 22, the long-standing gay-marriage ban overturned by the courts last May, passed in 2000 with 60 percent of the vote, while Prop. 8 passed with only 52 percent.
“I think it is still a very strong social issue on both sides in our society right now,” he says. “But the voting numbers show that as a society we’re moving in the right direction.”
Gin is an unusual public official in that he is gay, married, Asian-American — and popular at a time when California politicians are reaching new lows in approval-rating polls. After serving eight years on the Redondo City Council and four as mayor, Gin has developed a reputation as a classic old-school politician who listens patiently to residents, considers a wide array of arguments and interests before making a decision, and goes out of his way to avoid confrontation.
See Mike Gin, Redondo Beach’s Chinese-American, Rotarian, Gay Mayor
LA Weekly
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Marriage no longer an issue for many in Massachusetts
WHITINSVILLE, Mass., – Twenty years after he met the love of his life, nearly five years after their wedding helped make history, it took a nasty bout of pneumonia for Gary Chalmers to fully appreciate the blessings of marriage.
“I was out of work for eight weeks, spent a week in the hospital,” Chalmers said. “That was the first time I really felt thankful for the sense of the security we had, with Rich there, talking with the physicians, helping make decisions. … It really made a difference.”
At stake was the most basic recognition of marital bonds — something most spouses take for granted. But until May 17, 2004, when Chalmers and Richard Linnell were among a surge of same-sex couples marrying in Massachusetts, it was legally unavailable to American gays and lesbians.
Since that day, four other states — Connecticut in 2008, and Iowa, Vermont and Maine this year — have legalized same-sex marriage, and more may follow soon. A measure just approved by New Hampshire’s legislature awaits the governor’s decision on whether to sign. But Massachusetts was the first, providing a five-year record with which to gauge the consequences.
See Marriage no longer an issue for many in Massachusetts
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Following Attorney General Investigation, Arizona-based Antigay Adoption Service Stops Business in New York: Lambda Legal’s Clients Vindicated
The Attorney General’s announcement follows a complaint filed by Lambda Legal on behalf of a New York gay couple barred from posting their on-line adoptive-parent profile by the companies in question solely because they are a same-sex couple. Adoption Profiles, LLC and Adoption Media, LLC were violating New York laws prohibiting such discrimination.
“New York Attorney General Cuomo has sent a clear message to all businesses that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation will not be tolerated,” said Flor Bermudez, Staff Attorney at Lambda Legal. “Companies can’t come into New York and hang a sign on their door saying ‘Same-sex couples need not apply.’”
Lambda Legal clients Rosario Gennaro and Alexander Gardner knew for a long time that they wanted to have children and that adoption was the way to make it possible. The couple had a home study by a licensed social worker and obtained certification as Qualified Adoptive Parents from the New York City Surrogate Court. The couple wanted to post their profile on ParentProfiles.com and seek a match with a birth parent. However, the website’s eligibility requirements only allow a “Qualifying Husband and Wife Couple” that are “one male husband and one female wife” to use the service, thus discriminating against same-sex couples on the basis of sexual orientation, sex and marital status. The company was sued in California for violating that state’s antidiscrimination law and is no longer doing business there.
“We are thrilled that the New York Attorney General’s office made the right decision and that no couple will have to experience what we did in our effort to become parents,” said Rosario Gennaro.
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Smith says NY Senate lacks gay marriage votes
ALBANY, N.Y. – New York Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith said Saturday that his Democratic conference lacks enough votes to legalize gay marriage this year, but he’s committed to passing a gay marriage bill soon.
Smith said in remarks prepared for a Human Rights Campaign event in Manhattan that he strongly supports equal marital rights for gay couples.
“Although we don’t have the number of votes at this time needed to pass the marriage equality and gender bill this legislative session, we are committed to pursuing its passage when we have the votes,” said Smith, of Queens.
But his confirmation that he lacks enough votes is likely a disappointment for gay rights advocates, who had hoped gay marriage would pass after Democrats took control of the Senate in the November elections. See Smith says NY Senate lacks gay marriage votes
Newsday, NY
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Gay band refines performance for inauguration
Members of the Lesbian & Gay Band Association practiced playing their instruments and marching in lockstep Monday in an effort to refine their performance for their parade appearance on Inauguration Day.
The band, which is slated to be the first gay contingent to march in a presidential inaugural parade, had its dress rehearsal at St. Elizabeth’s, a federally operated psychiatric hospital, and marched around the facility’s grounds.
Marita Begley, one of the drum majors for the band, urged marchers to tighten their step during the rehearsal.
“On the turn, if you’re turning right, you guide right!” she shouted. “You got to stay shoulder-to-shoulder on the turn. Don’t swing out!”
See Gay band refines performance for inauguration
Southern Voice, GA
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