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...

Advocate.com May 15, 2010 By Advocate.com Editors A lesbian couple are suing Iowa state officials for printing on their daughter’s birth certificate that she has only one parent and was born out of wedlock. Heather Lynn Martin Gartner, 38, and Melissa McCoy Gartner, 39, filed suit against two state health department officials on behalf of their daughter Mackenzie, who was born in September, because her birth certificate lists only Heather as the...

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...

By Bill Barrow, The Times-Picayune April 27, 2010, 12:55PM Lengthy and passionate testimony in the Senate Judiciary A Committee today ended with a 3-1 party line rejection of a measure that would have expanded gay adoption in Louisiana. Senate Bill 129, which ended up as a combination of two measures by Sens. Ed Murray and J.P. Morrell, would have allowed unmarried couples to jointly adopt and allow an existing parent to petition a court to add a...

March 26, 2010 - The State Column Arizona is considering a bill of a different sort; one that would block gays from the adoption process. Under the proposal, gays and singles would be exempt from the adoption process; married couples alone would be considered. The bill, written by Republican State Representative Warde Nichols, seems to have little political support. However, it indicates that the gay marriage debate is alive and far from over. Recent...

BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD Published: Thursday, August 6, 2009 5:09 PM CDT - Gay City News Last week, the Senate narrowly defeated a proposed amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill, under which people who had licenses to carry concealed weapons issued by their home state would be allowed to carry such weapons everywhere in the US, including those states with stricter licensing criteria or outright bans. The main argument against the amendment was...

Measure would penalize states with anti-gay laws By CHRIS JOHNSON, Washington Blade Oct 19 2009, 5:32 PM A federal lawmaker is touting an adoption anti-discrimination bill he recently introduced as a way to find more homes for children living in the welfare system. U.S. Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) on Oct. 15 introduced the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, which would restrict federal funds for states that discriminate in adoption or foster programs...

Leonard Link The U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, has filed its motion to dismiss in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, Case No. 1:09-cv-10309 (JLT) (U.S.Dist.Ct., D. Mass.), the constitutional challenge to Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act filed in federal court in Boston last winter by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD). The brief that DOJ filed on September 18 in support of the motion seems to come...

August 28, 12:04 PMSouth America Policy ExaminerSylvia Longmire In yet another bold move by Uruguay’s socialist government, lawmakers voted yesterday to allow adoptions by gay and lesbian couples. The measure, which was approved 40-13, still needs to pass through the senate, a move considered a formality since it was already approved there on a first reading. The senate was due to vote on the measure before September 15, the end of a legislative...

There’s a movement in Louisiana that may help gay couples adopt children. The Louisiana Commission on Marriage and Family has been approached about adoption equality for gay couples. The AP reports: The idea, made in a presentation Thursday by the Forum for Equality Louisiana, was greeted with little enthusiasm from commission members in a state that has a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Louisiana currently allows married couples or a single...