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Strollerderby
A photo of Melissa, Heather and MacKenzie courtesy of the Des Moines Register.
In 2009, just months after Melissa Gartner and Heather Gartner married, Melissa gave birth to the couple’s first daughter. They expected they would both be listed on baby MacKenzie’s birth certificate, as they had been when they adopted son Zachary, but that was not the case.
The Iowa Department of Health lists only Heather as a parent of MacKenzie on the birth certificate. The Des Moines Register explains this is because, “Of states that recognize civil unions, only Iowa prohibits two women from being listed as parents on a child’s birth certificate. The exception is if a child is adopted.” The mothers sued, and their case is now being heard by the Iowa Supreme Court.
How do you argue with a person, no matter the age, who has always felt she or he is trapped in the wrong body?
A court in Australia is allowing a tween who was born a boy to become the youngest person Down Under to undergo a sex-change therapy.
“Jamie” has dressed in girls’ clothes, used the girls’ bathroom at school and worn her hair long and in a style more accustomed to those of the female persuasion for the past two years.
According to her parents, medical experts and psychiatrists, the fear is that without seeking the therapy, early-onset puberty could lead Jamie to self-harm or suicide, and therefore the court was petitioned to allow her to undergo the change.
“America’s got a bad case of gayby fever,” writes Thomas Rogers at Salon, who says that the gay parenting boom is reshaping the American family.
According to a 2007 study, more than one in three lesbians has given birth and one in six gay men have fathered or adopted a child. The same studied showed that more than half of gay men and 41 percent of lesbians say they want to have a child.
Pop culture is keeping up with the trend. The Sundance hit “The Kids Are Alright,” starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as gay parents, is already getting buzz as the “must-see” movie of the summer. Hit TV show “Modern Family” features gay parents. Dan Savage’s memoir “The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant” has just been turned into an off-Broadway musical.
And celebrities such as Ricky Martin, Clay Aiken, Rosie O’Donnell, Melissa Etheridge serve as the unofficial spokespeople for gay parenthood. Continue reading »
It’s a continual lament around our house — there are so few films that are suitable for young children. My mother-in-law likes to take her grandkids to the movies, but it’s hard to find ones that we feel are acceptable. Being animated doesn’t automatically mean a film is okay for the little ones. Even Disney films are, in our house, “for big kids” because of the violence and gender stereotypes. So when a state decides to offer a tax credit for “family-friendly” films being made there, it sounds like an idea long overdue.
I imagine that, as a child in the foster-care system, it would be difficult to trust anyone, be it case workers, foster parents, or pretty much any adult. But when an entire foster-care program throws up its hands and walks away, that’s got to hurt. Especially when the reason is as irrelevant and malicious as a personal opposition to same-sex marriage. That, however, is exactly what the Catholic Church has done in Washington D.C.
In our house, it’s simply “The Trial”. My brother-in-law, who follows such things, says that this is probably the biggest case in the last 40 years. It will very likely affect every state in the nation and will either affirm or weaken the constitution, depending on the outcome. And whatever the outcome, in another twenty years’ time, it will almost certainly be moot, except as a chapter in high school civics books. The Trial, of course, is the case of Perry et al v. Schwarzenegger et al, also known as the federal challenge to California’s Proposition 8.
According to a psychologist testifying in the federal case challenging the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, same-sex parents are just as good as their mixed-gender counterparts. That’s not just one man’s opinion, however. It’s the finding of more than a hundred studies on the subject and the official opinion of the American Psychological Association and seven other professional organizations. And based on my own personal experiences, I have to agree.
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