“Anne Hathaway‘s family left the Catholic Church because of its intolerance of homosexuality. Anne grew up wanting to become a nun but shunned Catholicism when she learned her older brother, Michael, was gay.” Hathaway says, “The whole family converted to Episcopalianism after my elder brother came out. Why should I support an organization that has a limited view of my beloved brother?” Anne was nominated for an Oscar™...

January 29, 2010 By SCOTT JAMES – New York Times- When Rio and Ray married in 2008, the Bay Area women omitted two words from their wedding vows: fidelity and monogamy. “I take it as a gift that someone will be that open and honest and sharing with me,” said Rio, using the word “open” to describe their marriage. Love brought the middle-age couple together — they wed during California’s brief legal window for same-sex marriage. But...

by Anthony M. Brown, 12/26/09 It was 3:00 in the morning on December 26th in a West Virginia Walmart parking lot when it happened.  For me, disco changed to diapers a long time ago when I became a donor dad to lesbian friends, but the reality of fatherhood was enjoyed from a distance.   Now, with the arrival of Nicholas in September, I am a full-time dad and the fun-gay-New Yorker-activist shops at Walmart.   I am officially no longer a gay man....

By Lisa Neff, columnist, 365gay.com 10.28.2009 10:54am EDT They were known to their neighbors as Sister Tricia and Sister Keya. They were not sisters, as in siblings or nuns. They were partners of more than 15 years and they were making a difference in a their neighborhood in the Quad-Cities, Ill., where I worked as a reporter for a daily newspaper in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their neighborhood, their community, was managed by a local housing...

October 3, 2009 New York Times By TARA SIEGEL BERNARD and RON LIEBER Much of the debate over legalizing gay marriage has focused on God and Scripture, the Constitution and equal protection. But we see the world through the prism of money. And for years, we’ve heard from gay couples about all the extra health, legal and other costs they bear. So we set out to determine what they were and to come up with a round number — a couple’s lifetime cost...

Attorney Theresa M. Erickson recommends: 1. Contact a Reproductive Lawyer or IVF Clinic for recommendations – the lawyers and the doctors are the licensed professionals in this field, as are the psychologists, and they can often give good advice on where to begin your journey. You might also find a lawyer you want to work with when it becomes time to sign and review agreements with Intended Parents. 2. What if the lawyer or clinic has their...

My husband and I have learned SO MUCH through the process of our surrogacy experience and I hope that you can benefit from our lessons/mistakes/education.  First, every surrogacy agency, ibncluding our’s – Circle Surrogacy, will play down the costs.  There are numerous hidden costs that are not on their cost lists, such as personal travel, car rental, hotel, gifts…  We are due in September and we have spent over $145,000.00! Second,...

“Goodnight Jim Bob.” “Goodnight Mary Ellen.” “Goodnight John Boy.” I was 10 years old when I first heard this famous TV sign-off. The television show I’m referring to, “The Waltons,” premiered in 1972 and told the sappy-sweet story of a dirt-poor family in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I couldn’t help but wonder why my family wasn’t more like theirs. I didn’t have six siblings or live-in grandparents like the Waltons,...

Submitted by stephaniec on Thu, 06/11/2009 – ProudParenting.com This past week I received a telephone call from a surrogate who wanted to know if it was legal for her to use her insurance for her surrogacy. She and the Intended Parent were using a contract that he found on the Internet. The surrogate seemed to think this was okay because he is attending law school so he is an attorney. I explained to her that until he passed the Bar and obtains...

  •According to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 33% of children adoption from Foster Care is by a single parent (U.S. DHHS, 2000). •Research in the 1970s found that an estimated .5% to 4% of persons completing adoptions were single. Studies in the 1980s found from 8% to 34% of adopters were single. (Stolley, 1993) •Across the country the number of single parent placements slowly and steadily continues toincrease, both...