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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Law Extends Parental Rights for Gays
Lesbians in the District no longer will need the written consent of their partners to adopt children born to their partners through artificial insemination, under a new law that took effect Saturday.
The name of a consenting spouse or unmarried partner will appear on the child’s birth certificate as the legal parent, a status that previously had to be obtained by same-sex parents through a complicated adoption process.
The Domestic Partnership Judicial Determination Parentage Act of 2009 puts the city out front when it comes to children born of same-sex parents, according to the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington (GLAA) and American University law professor Nancy Polikoff.
See Law Extends Parental Rights for Gays
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What will parents do to avoid having a gay son?
In the early 1990s, when genetic research was far less advanced than today, Jonathan Tolins posed the question: If a woman knew in advance that her male baby would be born gay, would she still go through with the pregnancy?
That’s the premise of his 1992 drama “The Twilight of the Golds,” which was filmed for cable television in 1997 and which receives an emotionally gripping staging courtesy of Theatre Out.
Through her husband’s medical research firm, which has devised genetic testing of fetuses, the pregnant Suzanne Gold-Stein (Jennifer Pearce) has discovered that her baby boy has the genetic markers of homosexuality.
The question of whether to keep the baby is, in fact, illuminated by the family’s firsthand experience: Suzanne’s brother David (Tim Woods) is gay, a factor that has, despite their denials, always affected his bond with her and with their parents.
The play is told from the opera-loving David’s point of view, its title a pun drawn from “The Twilight of the Gods,” the fourth opera in Wagner’s “Ring” Cycle. He frames the play’s focal issue when he asks, “What difference does being gay make?” As the story progresses, its ethical complications are magnified, even as Tolins takes time out to assail the materialism of the 1980s.
Complicating the ethical dilemma posed by Tolins is the way it splits the family. For David, who is, ironically, pro-choice, aborting the baby is tantamount to killing him. As much as she dotes on David, mom Phyllis (Karen Harris) has to admit that “it hurts to see your child become something different.”
Seeing genetic testing as a boon to mankind, Suzanne’s husband Rob (Eric James) insists that he and Suzanne “don’t need David to tell us how to live our lives,” while patriarch Walter Gold (Rick Kopps) maintains that “it’s Rob and Suzanne’s decision.”
See What will parents do to avoid having a gay son?
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Woman breaks the law, serves as a surrogate for single gay brother
A WOMAN is due to give birth to a child for her gay brother after impregnating herself with donor sperm from a third party - an act that is illegal in her home state of Queensland.
At the centre of the startling story, the homosexual man says pregnancy tests taken last month have proven that his sister is carrying what will become his first child.
The man, aged in his mid-twenties, said his older sister, who has two teenage children herself, agreed to carry a child for him earlier this year and became pregnant after being artificially inseminated with another man’s sperm.
It is not known if the child, due to be born early next year, will know the identity of its biological mother. It will not have interaction with the biological father.
“I understand that my own situation is a little different to what people would normally hear about,” the man told news.com.au in an email. See Woman a surrogate for single gay brother
NEWS.com.au
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And the Gay Tax is? $1820 per year
NPR contributor Nancy Goldstein has calculated the “gay tax” — the amount gay couples must spend to receive the same services that married heterosexual couples can count on everyday. In a column, she writes:
The cost of love isn’t an abstract concept in my household: It’s precisely $1,820 per year. That’s the “gay tax” we shell out for me to be on my wife’s health insurance plan, because her company must treat that benefit as additional taxable income.
Goldstein adds that “The media’s primary focus on the morality debate around same-sex marriage means that most of the public, gay or straight, knows little about the very real economic costs of inequality.”
The largest costs of marriage inequality also tend to be the easiest to quantify: Social Security survivor benefits denied, joint tax returns not filed, and many, many other cost savings that most married couples probably don’t even think about.
It’s this side of the gay marriage debate that has led the normally middle-of-the-road financial guru Suze Orman to wade into the debate. See And the Gay Tax is? $1820 per year WalletPop * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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‘This Is a Question of Fairness’ - NY Times Editorial
It is by no means a fast and easy path, but the cause of same-sex marriage is moving forward — proof that justice can triumph over wedge politics and prejudice. It happened this week in Maine and New Hampshire, where both states’ legislatures voted to legalize same-sex marriage and promptly put the final say to their governors.
In New Hampshire, Gov. John Lynch — who previously defined marriage as strictly between a man and a woman — promised his “best decision” after consulting lawmakers and constituents. Mr. Lynch would be wise also to consult his neighbor in Maine, Gov. John Baldacci, who signed his state’s same-sex marriage bill. He previously had opposed the idea, with the familiar hedge of supporting the half-step of civil unions.
Mr. Baldacci described his change of heart — and what we hope is the changing sentiment of many other American politicians. “I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage,” he said. Precisely.
Maine was the fifth state to legalize same-sex marriage. We urge Mr. Lynch to make New Hampshire the sixth. Similar proposals are pending in other states, with a major debate expected in the New York Legislature.
This week, the City Council of the District of Columbia took a preliminary step, voting 12 to 1, to recognize marriages between gay people certified in other states. A fuller debate is anticipated on a proposal to legalize same-sex unions. Unfortunately, there already are calls for Congress to once more tread on home rule and block this progress in the nation’s capital.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is right to caution against such grandstanding. Governor Baldacci heard the people speak. Congress should listen. See ‘This Is a Question of Fairness’
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Opponents of DC Gay Marriage Bill Hope Congress Intervenes
And they have allies on Capitol Hill, which has thirty days to review the matter before it becomes law. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she supports the measure and wants Congress to stay out of it. But conservatives lawmakers hope to force a vote on the bill.
“I think we should be allowed to express each of our opinions,” Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz said. “I happen to represent what I think is the majority opinion, which is marriage should be defined as between one man and one woman.”
Yet for some long-time activists, who own a gay bookstore in the District, the pastors and conservatives are wrong.
“”We are, as far as we’re concerned, married 100 percent for life,” said Deacon MacCubbin, owner of Lambda Rising Bookstore. “That’s the way it is. And yet, there are people that want to stand between him and I in those personal, private matters. See Opponents of DC Gay Marriage Bill Hope Congress Intervenes
News Channel 8 - Washington,DC,USA
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Obama’s 100-day gay report card
This Wednesday marks the 100th day since President Obama took the oath of office and, for the national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, never-before-experienced access to and inclusion in the federal government — although the LGBT community is still awaiting the appointment of an openly gay individual to the president’s cabinet.
Since taking office, Obama has appointed at least 35 openly LGBT individuals to federal posts. Nine of these employees were nominated for positions that required Senate confirmation, making Obama the first president ever to choose LGBT individuals for such positions within the first 100 days of the presidency.
Among the top LGBT appointments are John Berry as director of the Office of Personnel Management; Fred Hochberg as chair of the Export-Import Bank; Kathy Martinez as assistant secretary for the Office of Disability Employment Policy; Marisa Demeo as associate judge in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia; Nancy Sutley as chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality; and Mercedes Marquez as the assistant secretary for community planning and development and Raphael Bostic as assistant secretary for policy development and research, both at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. See Obama’s 100-day gay report card
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SF summit looks at lesbian health issues
SAN FRANCISCO — The first problem surfaced when Dulce Garcia went to a San Francisco clinic two years ago for her annual physical. As she filled out the intake form, all the questions assumed she was straight.
Then in the examining room, a nurse repeatedly offered her a pregnancy test and birth control.
“She kept telling me Latino women have a high risk of pregnancy,” said Garcia, a health educator who teaches youths about disease prevention. “I had to out myself right there and then. The nurse seemed shocked that I wasn’t heterosexual. Even here in San Francisco, this kind of thing happens.”
The health concerns of lesbians, from interpersonal difficulties in doctors’ offices to the high prevalence of risk factors for heart disease and many cancers, will be highlighted at a national summit this weekend in San Francisco.
“This conversation is long overdue,” said Dr. Sandra Hernandez, chief executive of the San Francisco Foundation and an assistant clinical professor at UCSF. “This is the first summit to bring together clinicians, scientists, leaders in their communities to discuss these issues.
“The summit will call for more research into lesbian health, and more funding for research.”
Women’s health has become a focal point of medical study relatively recently.
See SF summit looks at lesbian health issues
San Francisco Chronicle
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Discovery Health Features Two Groundbreaking GLBT Profiles in TRANSGENDER M.D. and FOSTERING LOVE
(Silver Spring, Md.) — This month, Discovery Health will air two programs profiling incredible stories about members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community. TRANSGENDER M.D. — premiering Thursday, February 12 at 8 PM ET/PT — follows the medical practice of Dr. Marci Bowers, the only OB/GYN in the tiny town of Trinidad, Colorado. Dr. Bowers is world-renowned for her progressive work in the field of gender reassignment and is the reason that Trinidad has become known as “the sex change capital of the world.” But Dr. Bowers has a secret — she was actually a “he.” Originally born male, Dr. Bowers formerly was known as Mark, a married father of three who came out with his desire to become a woman and underwent gender transition from 1996-1998. Today, Dr. Bowers lives happily as a woman with her partner in Trinidad. TRANSGENDER M.D. showcases Dr. Bowers’ dedicated work as she endeavors to give patients the same opportunity that she had, and the lives they have always wanted.
Premiering Wednesday, February 18 at 8 PM, FOSTERING LOVE is the story of a married same-sex couple in California with more than enough love to go around. Meet Jim and Mark, parents with an ever-growing family comprised of biological, foster and adopted children. Together for six years, Mark and Jim recently decided to move their brood from the city to the country to live and work on an alpaca farm. Amid this change, Mark and Jim are attempting to adopt Olivia, a baby girl they have fostered since birth — but complications with Olivia’s birth mother threaten to interfere with their dreams. Discovery Health’s cameras capture the joy and occasional frustration that come along with raising a family full of infants, toddlers and teenagers, while attending to a barnyard full of animals.
TRANSGENDER M.D. and FOSTERING LOVE are produced for Discovery Health by MEg TV. For Discovery Health, Lisa Lucas is executive producer and for MEg TV, Nancy Saslow is executive producer.
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