Why Is It ‘Policy’ For Some States To ‘Flag’ Birth Certificates Of Children Adopted By Gay Parents?

by DAVID BADASH 

Post image for Why Is It Policy For Some States To Flag Birth Certificates Of Children Adopted By Gay Parents?

Why is it “policy” for some states to “flag” — to place a hold on — the birth certificates of children adopted by gay parents, when they don’t do that for adopted children of opposite-sex parents? Why do some states think they have to review the actions of same-sex parents? Because in the eyes of many state governments, and the federal government, same-sex parents aren’t equal under the law, and that inequality allows, or even requires by law or policy, additional scrutiny.

There are 650,000 same-sex couples across the country today, many of whom are raising 250,000 children. This week, one Nashville, Tennessee same-sex couple applying for a social security card for their adopted son, Micah, were told his birth certificate would be “flagged” until 2033 by the Georgia State Department Of Vital Records. “It’s the policy,” they were told. But why?

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USA – ‘Today’ host Jenna Wolfe comes out as lesbian, dating NBC News correspondent Stephanie Gosk

Jenna Wolfe and Stephanie Gosk

Today show anchor Jenna Wolfe revealed on Wednesday that she is dating NBC News correspondent Stephanie Gosk, and is pregnant with her first child. Wolfe also told People.com the couple is planning to wed, and the news has prompted openly gay singer Wright to offer her best wishes.

In a post on her Twitter.com page, country star Chely Wright writes, “Yay! Congratulations! Love-baby-family! Jenna and Steph: courage!”

Wright is married to activist Lauren Blitzer and is expecting twins.

American Academy of Pediatrics Backs Marriage Equality as 'Best Interests' of Kids

The influential group said it released the policy change so that the Supreme Court justices would be able to consider it.

BY LUCAS GRINDLEY

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Dr. Paul Melchert, son, Emmett,  partner James Zimerman, right, holds twin, Gabriel, during a news conference in St. Paul, Minn., where lawmakers introduced a bill to legalize gay marriage in Minnesota. In time for the Supreme Court to consider next week, the influential American Academy of Pediatrics for the first time issued public support for marriage equality today, arguing its in the “best interests” of children.

“Children thrive in families that are stable and that provide permanent security, and the way we do that is through marriage,” said Benjamin Siegel, chairman of the AAP Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health, and a co-author of the newpolicy statement issued today.

The statement concludes, “Scientific evidence affirms that children have similar developmental and emotional needs and receive similar parenting whether they are raised by parents of the same or different genders.” In other words, science has found no difference between children from homes with LGBT parents compared to straight parents.

Washington Post columnist George Will, a prominent conservative voice, had recently written a column claiming no one knows if having same-sex parents who are legally married could harm children. His case, headlined “The Shaky Science Behind Same-Sex Marriage,” was widely criticized as homophobic and unaware of actual research. Along with its policy change, the Academy of Pediatrics also published online a lengthy technical report today in the journal, Pediatrics. It cites “more than 30 years of research” to make its case that children are put in no danger by having same-sex parents and are actually better off if their parents are legally married.

The new policy statement encourages pediatricians to call for marriage equality, saying the AAP “supports pediatricians advocating for public policies that help all children and their parents, regardless of sexual orientation, build and maintain strong, stable, and healthy families that are able to meet the needs of their children.”

There’s No Place Like Home

BY TRUDY RING

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It’s difficult enough being a mother with HIV or the mother of an HIV-positive child—or both. It’s even more difficult if you don’t have stable housing, a situation faced by many people with HIV.

“If they don’t have any place to live, they’re not going to be adhering to their medications,” says Kathie Hiers, CEO of AIDS Alabama and president of the National AIDS Housing Coalition. To address the problem, AIDS Alabama and similar organizations around the nation are now providing housing to families in which at least one member is HIV-positive, but the demand still often exceeds the available space.

And, more often or not, the families served tend to be headed by single moms. The threat of homelessness, or the reality, results from a variety of factors, including discrimination and lack of resources. Chicago House and Social Service Agency was founded in 1985, when it was common for people with HIV to be kicked out of their homes. Initially, it largely served individuals, but in 1992 it opened an apartment building dedicated to serving families, the first such facility in the Midwest. It added a second family building in 2009 and now also has scattered-site units for families, on the whole housing about 25 families at any given time, says CEO Stan Sloan. He estimates that Chicago House has provided homes to 300 families since 1992, and in most of them the mother has been the only parent in the household.

The story is similar at AIDS Alabama, which got into the housing business in the early 1990s, serving individuals, then recognized the need to expand its mission. In 1993 the group built its first family complex, which was also the first in the South, says Hiers. Her organization also administers federally funded vouchers under the Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS law, allowing HIVers statewide to find housing on the open market.

“We’ve always known that people have better health outcomes when they have safe, affordable housing,” says Hiers. That knowledge was initially based strictly on informal observation, but once researchers undertook some scientific studies, they generated enough evidence to fill an entire issue of the journalAIDS and Behavior, she says.

AIDS Alabama’s experience has been similar to Chicago House’s in that most of its family households have consisted of a single mother with children. Women with families have a particular need for housing and other supportive services, says Hiers: “Nine times out of 10, they’re going to be putting those children ahead of their own health needs.”

These organizations and other housing providers for people with HIV offer additional services to their residents, such as case management to coordinate their health care; transportation; and tutoring and recreational programs for children. “Prior to our families getting here, there’s so little hope for them,” Sloan says, but stable housing and related services help improve their quality of life.

The goal of supportive housing providers is to allow residents to stabilize their health and finances to the point that they can move on to housing available on the general market. For some this process takes a few months, for others several years. Sloan sums it up this way: “People can stay,” he says, “as long as they need to build a whole life.”

Documents Reveal Anti-Gay Parenting Study Was Manipulated To Influence Supreme Court

By Zack Ford 

Mark Regnerus

Mark Regnerus has admitted his “family structures” study didn’t actually measure gay parenting, comparing the children of separated parents who had same-sex relationships with those of married opposite-sex parents. An internal auditor of the journal that published the Regnerus study last year concluded its findings were “bullshit” because this false comparison doesn’t adequately measuring same-sex parenting. Nevertheless, conservatives have repeatedly cited the study, even to the Supreme Court, claiming same-sex couples are unfit to raise children to substantiate their opposition to marriage equality, even though medical professionals have thoroughly debunked its claims. Now, documents reveal that the anti-gay conservatives who originally funded the study conspired before data was even collected to produce results that could influence “major decisions of the Supreme Court.”

The American Independent collected internal documents through public-records requests from the anti-gay Witherspoon Institute, which funded the Regnerus study, and found that its President intended the study to produce a result against gay parenting before it was even conducted. This is not surprising, as both the Witherspoon Institute, as well as the study’s other funder, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, are connected to Robert George, founding co-chair of the National Organization for Marriage and prominent legal opponent of marriage equality. Now these emails confirm that suspicion.

For example, the University of Texas hired academic consultant W. Bradford Wilcox to conduct data analysis on the Regnerus study, ignoring that he was a longtime fellow of the Witherspoon Institute and was still working with Witherspoon while the study was conceptualized. Regnerus reached out to Wilcox back in September of 2010 for input about “their hopes for what emerges from this project.” Wilcox also suggested the study be pitched to the journal Social Science Research, where Wilcox sits on the editorial advisory board.

The study was also rushed, with Witherspoon president Luis Tellez telling Regnerus in 2010 that the study should “move along as expeditiously as possible”:

TELLEZ: It would be great to have this before major decisions of the Supreme Court but that is secondary to the need to do this and do it well. I would like you to take ownership and think of how would you want it done, rather than someone like me dictating parameters but of course, here to help.

Tellez confirmed to The American Independent that he was referring to same-sex marriage cases. In April 2011 — a year before the study was complete — Tellez wrote in a letter that “we are confident that the traditional understanding of marriage will be vindicated by this study as long as it is done honestly and well.” He also suggested that no prior study had properly compared children raised by a mother and father and those “headed by gay and lesbian couples, but of course the Regnerus study doesn’t even do that.

Publication was similarly rushed. It was submitted for publication in February 2012 before Regnerus had even completed all of the data collection and accepted just six weeks later, while many other articles published in the same issue took a year between submission and acceptance. Peer review was similarly hurried, with one social demographer told he only had two weeks to review the study and offer a commentary — without even having access to all the data. These documents vindicate suspicions that the study was politically calculated. Indeed, at every step of the process, the goal of this study was always to undermine same-sex parenting, not learn anything of its potential value. In truth, with the fraudulent methodology on national display, it has only served to reveal the animus behind those opposed to LGBT equality.

FRC's Peter Sprigg Suggests Kidnapping Laws Shouldn't Protect Gay Parents

SUBMITTED BY Brian Tashman 

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins hosted senior fellow Peter Sprigg on Washington Watch yesterday to discuss the sentencing of pastor Kenneth Miller for aiding Lisa Miller (no relation), who kidnapped her daughter, Isabella Miller-Jenkins. Perkins recently praised Kenneth Miller’s “courage” in aiding the kidnapping scheme. Lisa Miller disobeyed a court decision that gave Isabella’s other mother, her former partner Janet Jenkins, visitation rights and, as a result, the courts eventually transferred custody to Jenkins. Miller then fled the country with Isabella to a Mennonite compound in Central America.

Sprigg told Perkins that Jenkins, who was in a civil union with Miller at the time of Isabella’s birth, should not be considered Isabella’s parent because she is not biologically related and therefore shouldn’t be protected by the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act.

According to Sprigg, paternity and kidnapping laws should only apply to heterosexual couples.

In normal marriage between a man and a woman the presumption of paternity was a presumption of something that is almost always true. But the Vermont court, which has allowed these civil unions, granted them all the legal rights of marriage, has converted that into a presumption of parentage whereby you are presuming something that cannot be true, something that is biologically impossible. That just shows how in the same-sex marriage debate we are flipping logic on its head.

And another aspect of this is that the law that Lisa ran afoul of and that Kenneth Miller, this pastor, ran afoul of is something called the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act. It was designed again normally for the context of heterosexual marriages that break up, where there is a divorce and perhaps a custody battle between two parents who are both the biological parents — the biological mother and the biological father — who have divorced each other and it’s designed to prevent someone from taking a child and crossing state lines to another jurisdiction in order to get a more favorable court ruling. So the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act was designed to protect the rights of a biological parent so that they cannot have their rights violated by the other biological parent. But here you have the rights of the biological parent being violated by someone who is not the biological parent at all. So again, the original purposes of these laws are being turned on their head in this case.

Family placement service encourages LGBT people to adopt

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people who are thinking about parenting are being encouraged to consider adoption and fostering by Slough Borough Council. In celebration of LGBT fostering and adoption week, the council will be holding an information evening on Friday at West 5, in Ealing, Greater London.

The event is being held at West 5 as there is no gay venue in Slough.

Jackie Pape, family placement service team manager, said: “Slough is proud to work with and actively encourages applications from couples, as well as individuals from the LGBT community.

“We’ve been working with same sex couples for more than 10 years and offer a professional and understanding service for people considering adoption and fostering.”

People can drop into the session any time between 8-10pm or can contact 0800 0730291 for more information.

Children in gay adoption are at no disadvantage study shows

Recent Study shows children adopted by lesbian and gay couples are at no disadvantage. Fears that children do less well in life are completely unfounded, according to the first study into how children and parents in non-traditional families fare compared with heterosexual households. The findings, from the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Family Research, will be published in a report by the British Association of Adoption and Fostering tomorrow. Researchers found that gay and lesbian parents are at least as good at coping with the demands of parenting. Children do not suffer any disadvantage, and the vast majority are not bullied at school, but the report warns: “Bullying and teasing are much more of a problem in secondary schools than primary schools; thus, only follow-up will reveal how things turn out in the future.”

The experiences of 130 gay, lesbian and heterosexual adoptive families in Britain, with children aged four to eight, were examined – focusing on the quality of family relationships, how parents cope and how children adjust. The study concludes “there was no evidence” to support speculation that children’s masculine or feminine tendencies are affected by having gay or lesbian parents. Family life and the quality of relationships are very similar for children regardless of their parents’ sexual orientation, it says.

Click the header link above to read the article.

‘So you think your child is gay?’ New guide answers parents’ common questions

Poll shows 81 per cent of people would be comfortable with having a lesbian, gay or bisexual child

SYTYCIGStonewall today publishes a guide for parents who think their child might be lesbian, gay or bisexual. So You Think Your Child Is Gay? answers parents’ common questions about sexual orientation, including ‘is it just a phase?’, ‘did I do something wrong?’ and ‘will I still be welcome at church?’. Stonewall is distributing the pocket-size guide to thousands of GPs’ surgeries, libraries and schools across Britain.

YouGov polling for Stonewall’s Living Together report shows 81 per cent of people in Britain would now be comfortable if their child grew up to be lesbian, gay or bisexual. However, coming out remains a stressful experience for many gay young people and their parents. Although gay people today have plenty of sources of support when they choose to come out, few resources exist for parents of gay young people. Stonewall’s new guide will help parents support their children without worrying needlessly about the ‘impact’ of their sexual orientation.

Stonewall Head of Education Wes Streeting said: ‘Many parents worry about what being gay means for their relationship with their children and have all sorts of questions that they’re sometimes afraid to ask for fear of saying the wrong thing. So You Think Your Child Is Gay? provides upbeat and straightforward advice to parents, which focuses on the most important thing of all – giving children love and support, whatever their sexual orientation.’

Stonewall is distributing copies of So You Think Your Child Is Gay? to local authorities, schools, libraries and GP surgeries across Britain. The guide is also available online at www.stonewall.org.uk/parentguide, or can be ordered from Stonewall’s Information Service on 08000 50 20 20.

Kansas Supreme Court Affirms Rights of Non-Biological Parents

A lesbian wins rights to the two children she helped raise with her former partner.

BY NEAL BROVERMAN

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The Kansas Supreme Court

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled on Friday that same-sex partners who help raise children are entitled to parental rights. The case involved Marci Frazier and Kelly Goudschaal, a couple who had two children through insemination. Goudschaal was the biological mother, but both women raised the children. When the couple separated in 2008, the couple attempted to co-parent, but Goudschaal eventually cut off contact from Frazier.

A lower court ruled that Frazier had parental rights to the children, granting joint custody to both women. Goudschaal appealed this order, saying her former partner was not a parent to the children. The high court agreed with the earlier ruling and granted Frazier joint custody and declared that both women should be legally recognized as parents. The court also ruled that agreements to share custody and co-parent are enforceable.

“The Kansas Supreme Court recognized that children with same-sex parents have the same need for stability and protection as children in any other family,” Cathy Sakimura, Family Law Director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which filed a friend of the court brief on the case, said in a statement. “We are grateful to the court for this thoughtful decision protecting the best interests of children in all families.”

Puerto Rico Supreme Court Upholds Gay Adoption Ban

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Tribunal in Puerto Rico upheld the U.S. territory’s ban on adoption by gay and lesbian people.

BY SUNNIVIE BRYDUM

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The Supreme Court in Puerto Rico today affirmed a ban on adoption by same-sex parents in a 5-4 decision, reports Blabbeando. The decision, handed down by the island’s Supreme Tribunal today, concluded that Puerto Rico’s constitution “‘does not prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation’ and accepted arguments presented by the legislature that the ‘traditional family,’ composed of a father, a mother, and their children ‘best protected the well-being of minors,’” according toBlabbeando.

The court was considering the case of a Puerto Rican lesbian who sought to legally adopt her partner’s daughter. The couple challenged a current Puerto Rico law that “bans the adoption of a minor if the biological mother doesn’t give up her rights, unless the couple consists of a man and a woman,” according to Blabbeando’s translation from Spanish publication El Vocero. Blabbeando notes that the court’s president, Federico Hernández Denton, disagreed with the majority decision, and called the ruling unconstitutional in his minority dissent. The three other judges who joined in the dissent said they did not believe the constitution prohibited adoptions by same-sex couples, and that they would have liked the state to recognize second-parent adoption. 

“With this nefarious decision the Supreme Tribunal of Puerto Rico fails once again to live up to its constitutional obligation to grant justice to those who go to the courts as a last recourse in search of equality,” said Puerto Rican LGBT activist Pedro Julio Serrano in a statement in Spanish. “This decision goes against the constitution. The Constitution is clear: All citizens should be protected equally and their dignity should not be violated. This decision violates, threatens and challenges two of the highest protections in our Carta Magna.”

On Monday, more than 200,000 Christian Puerto Ricans marched on the commonwealth’s capitol in San Juan to protest LGBT rights, including marriage equality and domestic violence protections for LGBT people, reports Russian news site RT.com.

Lesbian Couple First to Adopt in Newfoundland

After 15 years together, Lisa Reid and Joy Gosse were able to legally adopt a boy and a girl.

BY DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL

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New moms Lisa Reid and Joy Gosse

Lisa Reid and Joy Gosse, a lesbian couple that has been together nearly two decades, became one of the first same-sex couples in Newfoundland and Labrador allowed to legally adopt a child.

In their case, two: on Thursday the two women adopted a son and a daughter — children they have been fostering since last year, according to CBC News. CBC reports that while the couple’s social worker “said they were the first same-sex couple to adopt in the province, there is at least one other. A Labrador couple told CBC News that they adopted a child five years ago. Nonetheless, Reid and Gosse are proud to be at a social vanguard.”

“I think we broke some new ground in some areas,” Gosse told CBC. The women talked adoption “from the very first moment we met,” said Reid. They filed adoption papers in 2008, but were worried because the adoption papers weren’t made for same-sex couples and even health care workers didn’t know how to deal with two mothers.

“They asked, ‘So who’s the mom? Who’s the mother?’ We said, ‘Well, Lisa’s mommy and I’m mama,’” Gosse told CBC. “And she shook her head and said, ‘But which one is the mother?’ We’re both the mothers, we’re lesbians.”

Click the header link above to watch the interview.

Gay And Lesbian Adoptions Are The New Norm In Quebec

 By Michel Viatteau

Quebec Gay Adoption

“I would like to have a mother, but I wouldn’t want to lose my two dads,” says Frida, a radiant six-year-old Canadian girl unaware of the international controversy raging over gay parenting rights.

In Britain and France the debate over gay marriage and parenting has provoked heated debate. But in Canada, a nation born out of their new world colonies, Frida’s situation is no longer very unusual.

Click the header link above to read the full story.

Obama to Honor PFLAG Founder

The late Jeanne Manford, who started PFLAG after her gay son was beaten, is one of 18 recipients of the Citizens Medal.

BY TRUDY RING

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Jeanne Manford

TW: anti-gay violence

President Obama announced today that he will posthumously honor Jeanne Manford, cofounder of Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, with the Citizens Medal.

In 1972, Manford and her husband, Jules, formed a support group for parents of gay children, an organization that grew into PFLAG, after their gay son, Morty, was brutally beaten during a gay rights protest in New York City and police failed to intervene.

“In the years that followed, Manford continued to march and organize, even after losing Morty to AIDS in 1992,” notes a White House press release. Jeanne Manford died in January at age 92.

“Jeanne was one of the fiercest fighters in the battle for acceptance and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,” PFLAG executive director Jody Huckaby said upon Manford’s death.

Manford is one of 18 people who will be honored with the Citizens Medal in a ceremony at the White House a week from today. President Obama selected them from among 6,000 names submitted by the public. Other honorees include activists for people with disabilities, veterans, Native Americans, and many other groups and causes, plus the six Sandy Hook Elementary School staff members who died in the mass shooting there December 14.

Find the full list here.