February 28, 2011 New york Times By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 1:35 p.m. EST LONDON (AP) — A British court has ruled that a Christian couple cannot care for foster children because they disapprove of homosexuality. Judges at London’s Royal Courts of Justice ruled that laws protecting gays from discrimination take precedence over the couple’s religious beliefs. Eunice and Owen Johns, aged 62 and 65-years old, had previously fostered...

Noeleen G. Walder February 25, 2011 – New York Law Journal A state appeals court has cleared the way for a same-sex spouse to inherit the estate of his deceased partner. The Appellate Division, First Department, held yesterday in Matter of the Estate of H. Kenneth Ranftle, 4214, that recognizing the marriage in Canada of H. Kenneth Ranftle and J. Craig Leiby, who was designated as Mr. Ranftle’s “surviving spouse and sole distributee,”...

Mombian – 2.24.2011 What a day yesterday, hmm? The Department of Justice says it won’t defend the Defense of Marriage Act. Not to mention that Maryland is edging closer to marriage equality (expect a final vote in the next day or two), and civil unions are now legal in Hawaii. (That is, the governor has signed the bill—it doesn’t go into effect until January 1, 2012.) Equality marches on, but it hasn’t been and still won’t be an easy...

Dr. Caitlin Ryan and her team at the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University have generated a wealth of new data over the past decade on the impact of family acceptance and rejection on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, children and youth. The findings of this research are dramatic, clear, and, above all, surprisingly hopeful. They have profound implications for virtually every public policy issue affecting LGBT...

February 2, 2011 New york Times By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE CASCADE, Md. — When Laurie Shifler was expecting her eighth child, she was so upset about a local hospital’s new policy restricting photographs of births that she started an online petition. Hundreds of people, near and far, signed it, many expressing outrage that a hospital would prevent parents from recording such a momentous occasion, one that could never be recaptured. The hospital,...