- Adoption
- Advice & Education
- Community Support
- Dads
- Entertainment
- Family & Friends
- Foster Care
- Gear & Gifts
- Insemination
- Just For Fun
- Legal & Financial
- Moms
- News & Politics
- Surrogacy
- Travel & Vacations
NYC City Council Speaker Christine Quinn [pictured] helped pass legislation which requires the City Clerk to inform couples registering for domestic partnerships about other states and countries where they can get married. Same sex marriages performed elsewhere are recognized as valid marriages by the state of New York.
A U.S. judge in Boston has ruled that the federal ban on marriage equality [Defense of Marriage Act] is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of a state to define marriage. The law was enacted by Congress in 1996 - when it appeared Hawaii would legalize marriage equality and opponents worried that other states would be forced to recognize such marriages.
Will Phillips will serve as Grand Marshal for the Northwest Arkansas Gay Pride parade in Fayetteville this weekend. Phillips made headlines last year for refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance at his school until all Americans had full equality. Last October he asked his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge. On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the Pledge, he remained sitting down. He did it again the next day, and the next day.
President Obama is expanding the rights of U.S. gay workers by allowing them to take family and medical leave to care for sick or newborn children of same-sex partners - regardless of whether or not a formal adoption has been processed. Federal law currently does not recognize same-sex relationships - but Obama's Labor Department believes that people in same-sex relationships should qualify for family and medical leave when they act as parents, sharing the care and support of a child.
Edie and Tamar Love [pictured] have been raising kids together for several years. They recently registered for a recreational family pass at the University of Memphis but were turned away because there was no legal document to prove their union.
Community members learned that the family was denied a family pass and several people contacted U of M to complain. As a result, the university is changing it's policy that requires marriage certificates for family membership plans.
A French gay father is stranded with twins in Mumbai after their birth via surrogacy in April. Because surrogacy is not legally accepted in France, the father went to India to work with a surrogate. Now he faces prosecution or losing his newborns if he returns back to France. French laws are particularly unfriendly toward gays who want to become parents through surrogacy.
Teresa Pires and Helena Paixao - divorced mothers in their 30's - were united in marriage in Portugal's first same-sex ceremony since the predominantly Catholic country introduced a law allowing marriage equality last month. The couple - who have been together since 2003 - married in a 15-minute ceremony in Lisbon. The union came less than a month after Portugal's conservative president ratified a marriage equality law passed by Parliament in January.
Lisa Miller may have kidnapped her daughter - and fled to Central America. Miller failed to appear for a court-ordered custody swap in January with Janet Jenkins - her former lesbian partner. Jenkins' attorney believes Miller took their daughter to El Salvador last September.
President Obama has ordered more benefits for same-sex partners of federal workers. Under his direction - employees with same-sex partners will receive the same benefits provided to their straight colleagues with wives or husbands - to the extent allowed by law. Last year he extended some benefits to same-sex partners of government workers and ordered federal agencies to review additional benefits that also could be available under existing laws.