By Candace Chellew-Hodge - 6.21.10 When President Obama issued his statement this past weekend in recognition of Father’s Day, he mentioned one class of fathers that no other president before him has acknowledged: gay dads. Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a stepfather, a grandfather, or caring guardian. His acknowledgement of the labor of love two men may...

Supporters of Proposition 8 have made child-rearing a focus of the trial. But no other group is prohibited from marrying because of parental abilities, or lack thereof. June 16, 2010 - LATimes.com It wasn’t surprising that the federal trial on Proposition 8 in January confirmed that the same-sex marriage ban is destructive to family life and discriminatory toward a group that has historically been subject to abuse. What did surprise us: Some...

May 4, 2010 - New York Times - By JEREMY W. PETERS ALBANY — New York State’s highest court somewhat expanded the rights of gay and lesbian parents on Tuesday in a narrow ruling that said nonbiological parents in same-sex relationships should be treated the same as biological parents. But the high court, the Court of Appeals, declined to resolve two cases involving lesbian parents and instead sent both back to lower courts, saying that the question...

May 4, 2010 By Anthony M. Brown, Esq. The New York Court of Appeals issued their ruling today on what had been considered to be a potentially landmark case, Debra H. v. Janice R.  In their ruling, the court allowed the plaintiff, Debra H., access to her non-biological child with whom she had been denied visitation from the biological mother, Janice R.  That sounds great, right?  Wrong. In doing so, the court allowed to stand the precedent  notion...

April 26, 2010 TheStar.com Rick Westhead ANAND, INDIA—Like all new parents, the Canadian couple was ecstatic about taking home their new children — twins born in one of India’s roughly 350 fertility clinics. The Canadians, both doctors, had paid a woman in India to carry their fertilized eggs to term. The going rate for a surrogate mother is close to $7,000, a windfall in a country where many labourers earn $1 a day. The couple headed to the...

By Carlos Santoscoy Published: April 30, 2010 An immigration reform “framework” proposed Thursday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and fellow Democrats includes gay families. The inclusion is likely to anger social conservatives and major immigration allies. Included in the “framework” are key provisions of the Uniting American Families Act. The legislation was previously offered as a standalone bill by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont...

Lambda Legal Newsletter - 3.11.10 “We hope for a high court decision that will save this six-year-old child from the tragic loss of his mother and bring the law in line with the reality for many New York families.” (New York, February 17, 2010) - Today, Lambda Legal argued before the New York State Court of Appeals on behalf of a non-biological mother after an intermediate appeals court denied her right to seek custody and visitation with,...

Lambda Legal Newsletter March 11, 2010 Days after decision awarding birth certificate to gay parents of adopted son, Louisiana attorney general again blocks state action. Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell on March 4 asked the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to review the February 20 decision by one of the Court’s three-judge panels that the Louisiana Registrar of Vital Statistics must respect a New York adoption of a Louisiana-born...

Baltimore Sun 1:40 PM EST, March 10, 2010 Kudos to Washington for legalizing same-sex marriage (”Wedding bells ring for same-sex couples in D.C.”, March 10). For the many couples who are or will be exchanging vows in D.C., they are no longer denied the rights of marriage that other Americans enjoy and take for granted. I was moved by the photo of the tearfully happy female couple who were just married and by the statement of a male couple...

Submitted by Jeff on Wed, 01/27/2010 - 2:41pm on ProudParenting.com Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia has delivered the third ruling against Florida’s infamous adoption ban - allowing a lesbian couple to adopt an infant relative, the Miami Herald reports: “While the 1977 law remains in limbo, Sampedro-Iglesia’s ruling suggests some state court judges already have made up their minds about gay adoption, a thorny...