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Michele Bachmann leans in for her daily demonstration of the awesomeness of kids.
It’s not the media, anti-tea partiers or Newt Gingrich fans who have it in for Michele Bachmann. It’s the under 18 set!
Last week, two teens took on Bachmann‘s stance on gay marriage at a rally in Iowa. This week, an 8-year-old in South Carolina showed up at the GOP presidential hopeful’s book signing to reassure the notoriously anti-gay candidate that, no thanks, his gay mom doesn’t need to be fixed.
Watch Bachmann lean over the table so she could hear the soft-spoken little guy in this short video: Continue reading »
Gay marriage is illegal in North Carolina, and in May residents will vote on whether or not there should be a constitutional amendment banning it.
In light of the news of the suicide of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, who killed himself Sunday as a result of gay bullying in school, I thought I’d highlight a piece that’s gone viral over the last week by North Carolina Dad Eric Shepherd, who writes “observations from the intersection of religion, science, politics, and culture” at his blog def shepherd. In a post titled, “Why A Heterosexual, Married, North Carolinian Father Of Three Cares About LGBT Equality,” Shepherd lays out exactly that: his case for the passage of gay marriage rights in his state.
He writes, “I’ve had people ask why I am so vocal about the issue of LGBT equality. Why is a heterosexual, married father so concerned with what gay people can or can’t do? I don’t have a dog in this fight, do I? I find those kinds of questions to be puzzling (and telling), as if we should value the rights of one group of humans over any other group, or only be concerned with the welfare of a group to which we belong.” Then he quotes Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel as saying, “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” The emphasis here is mine, since I want to point out that Anderson Cooper’s guests said the same thing about the use of neutral language and its inability to fight gay bullying in schools. Continue reading »
Congratulations to all the New Yorkers who got married yesterday, especially those who had been waiting such a long time to do it. I teared up at photos of couples who’ve spent the past fifty years together finally getting their marriage licenses. It was a great day for New York.
As incredible as the day was for gay and lesbian couples who are finally able to tie the knot in New York, it was also a huge day for another group of people: their kids.
Many of the queer couples getting hitched in New York this weekend are moms and dads. How will their newly married status change their lives?
Will New York's new gay marriage law fuel an adoption boom?
With legal marriage just around the corner for gay New Yorkers, adoption agencies and lawyers are prepping for a surge in demand from newly married gay couples.
It’s already perfectly legal for gay and lesbian couples to adopt in New York. But some experts believe that having a marriage license will make many folks feel more comfortable and secure doing it. There’s no data yet on whether or not gay and lesbian couples are adopting more children in the five other state where gay marriage is legal. That won’t become available until the results of the 2010 census are published later this year.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that marriage leads to a feeling of security and family, which makes more gay couples confident in adopting a child.
![gaymarriage Kid Meets His First Gay Married Couple [VIDEO]](http://cdn.babble.com/strollerderby/files/2011/07/gaymarriage.jpg "gay marriage")
Living in downtown Manhattan means my kids have known same sex partners for as long as they can remember. But recent events have definitely bumped up this idea in their awareness. Ever since the Marriage Equality Act was passed in New York, my daughter has been proudly proclaiming that two women can marry each other to whoever will listen.
But I realize that my kid’s exposure to gay couples (and our family’s attitude) isn’t necessarily typical. As gay marriage gets more normalized, more children will begin to grasp the idea that love exists beyond the boundaries of the man-woman relationship. Though this warms my open-minded heart, I’m guessing this isn’t everyone’s idea of positive progress. But it’s happening; and it’s probably going to be a lot less weird for the kids who grow up with this concept than some of their parents, who have to unlearn the stigmas they grew up with.
Watch, for example, as this little boy meets his very first gay couple and puts two and two together.
The Empire State Building celebrates the passage of the Marriage Equality Act.
“I’m calling to register my support for the Marriage Equality bill,” I told the harried woman on the phone yesterday. I got the number for Dean G. Skelos’ office from a friend who posted it on Facebook, then I called and reposted. And my friends called and reposted. And I left for a show and wasn’t sure what would happen, but I got home just in time last night to catch the final yay vote as it was cast. I couldn’t believe it. The Republican-led New York State Senate passed the Marriage Equality bill, 33-29. And lawmakers said it was all of the phone calls and emails they received from constituents that made the difference. We were all a part of history.
“Oh my God, this is amazing!” I said to my daughter. “They just passed gay marriage!” Just then, the TV footage switched to the crowds at Stonewall and my daughter asked what was happening. “Now girls can marry girls and boys can marry boys,” I told her. “Sometimes girls love girls and boys love boys and now they can get married.”
“Girls can marry girls?,” my 5-year-old retorted incredulously. And then she announced that she wanted to marry her best girlfriend. Continue reading »
Adoptions among gay couples spike, but not because laws have made it easier.
Despite barriers that hetero-sexual couples don’t face, adoptions by same-sex couples are really on the rise. New census data shows that in 2009, 19 percent of gay couples had an adopted child in the house. That’s more than double the number that it was in 2000 — only 8 percent.
Gay couples still have to negotiate confusing and inconsistent laws throughout the country. They face a legal patchwork, outright discrimination and, in two states — Utah and Mississippi — laws forbidding them from forming a family through adoption.
So what this sudden and striking rise? Continue reading »
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