Proud Parenting

LGBTQ Parents - Lesbian Moms & Gay Dads

Everyone needs a gay aunt or uncle

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Why haven’t gay people gone extinct? Because gays and lesbians nurture their nieces and nephews in order to help their family grow. The bigger the family – the higher likelihood of having gay relatives.

A new study found that gay men may be predisposed to nurture their nieces and nephews as a way of helping to ensure their own genes get passed down to the next generation.

The idea is called the kin selection hypothesis. It’s possible that gay people are biologically predisposed to help raise the offspring of their siblings and other relatives.

“Maybe what’s happening is they’re helping their kin reproduce more by just being altruistic towards kin,” said evolutionary psychologist Paul Vasey of the University of Lethbridge in Canada. “Kin therefore pass on more of the genes which they would share with their homosexual relatives.”

Adopted son of gay Key West man gets state subsidy

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Florida’s adoption ban was ignored again by fair-minded people with authority. State child welfare administrators agreed to provide health insurance, college tuition and other benefits to the adopted son of a gay Key West man.

The Miami Herald reports:

For more than a year, the Department of Children & Families had refused to provide the adoption subsidy to the adoptive son of Wayne LaRue Smith, a Key West lawyer whose request to adopt a boy he was raising in foster care was approved by a Monroe County judge in the fall of 2008.

On Tuesday, DCF lawyers did an about-face, agreeing in writing to provide the boy with subsidized college tuition, health insurance under the state’s Medicaid program, and other benefits typically provided to other children who are adopted from state care. Read more…

9/24/2008
‘Nurturing, stable, and devoted’ gay dads lead Florida’s first gay adoption

Earlier this month, a Circuit Court judge in Florida struck down the state’s ban on gay adoption in order to allow a foster parent in Key West to adopt the son he had been raising.

The Miami Herald offers more information about Wayne Larue Smith his partner Daniel Skahen and their 12-year-old son:

The two men have fostered more than 30 children since DCF accepted their application nine years ago, from a 2-day-old newborn to a 17-year-old. Still, there was something missing. The little boy who had come to their home in 2001 wanted a real father, Smith said. Not a foster dad. Not a permanent guardian — a legal nicety that occurred in 2004 granting Smith the ability to make decisions on the boy’s behalf. At the doctor’s office, at the grocery store, at an airline ticket counter, the boy seemed to visibly deflate every time a stranger asked Smith, ‘Is that your son?’ Smith said. Smith and Skahen were, in most respects, model foster parents, records showed. ‘The applicant is seen as nurturing, stable and devoted,’ a social worker’s home study concluded. ‘As an individual, he is considered to hold high moral character and is known to be gentle and patient.’ The 12-year-old boy’s teacher testified the couple were among the most involved and nurturing parents in her class. ‘I must confess,’ she told a judge, ‘the first year I had him, knowing he was of gay parents, I looked for things, and I found nothing.’

Surrogacy decriminalized in Australia

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Under reforms in Australia, legal parentage of a child born in surrogacy agreements will transfer from the birth mother to the parent or parents who commissioned the birth. This extends to same-sex couples.

An opposition bill that would see surrogacy continue to be illegal for same-sex couples was debated but it failed to pass.

The Australian State Parliament made the decision after a lot of debate.

Premier Anna Bligh [pictured] has defended her Government’s new surrogacy laws – saying same-sex couples and singles are already becoming parents through artificial insemination.

Ms. Bligh told Parliament it would be wrong to ban them from having a child through surrogacy.

“The time for putting our heads in the sand on this issue is over,” she said.

Anne Hathaway’s family left Catholicism to support her gay brother

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HuffPost reports:

“Anne Hathaway‘s family left the Catholic Church because of its intolerance of homosexuality. Anne grew up wanting to become a nun but shunned Catholicism when she learned her older brother, Michael, was gay.”

Hathaway says, “The whole family converted to Episcopalianism after my elder brother came out. Why should I support an organization that has a limited view of my beloved brother?”

Anne was nominated for an Oscar™ for Rachel Getting Married [’08]. She’s also co-starred in The Devil Wears Prada, The Princess Diaries, and Brokeback Mountain.

A Family Building Seminar about egg donation and gestational surrogacy

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New Jersey-based Reproductive Possibilities is hosting a wine and cheese reception and sponsoring a Family Building Seminar about Egg Donation and Gestational Surrogacy at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center – in New York City.

LGBT Center
208 West 13th St, (DeBenedictis Room # 410)
New York, NY 10011
Thursday, April 22, 2010
6:00 — 8:30PM

Registration is FREE, please contact gloria@reproductivepossibilities.com

This Seminar will cover the medical, emotional and surrogate processes involved when building your family through third party reproduction.

Speakers include: Melissa Brisman, JD – Surrogate Agency Owner, Dr. Susan Treiser – Reproductive Endocrinologist , Judith Kottick, LCSW.

Also a same-sex couple who are parents through egg donation and gestational surrogacy and an experienced surrogate will share their stories.

‘Dottie’s Magic Pockets’ gives us new tunes with a singalong story CD for kids

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Our friend Dottie has a new CD filled with her fantastically fun friends.

The CD is called “The Super Secret Seashell Cave” – and includes a fun audio adventure with Dottie and her puppet neighbors – as well as more than a dozen new, original songs.

The Super Secret Seashell Cave finds Dottie and her friends on their fabulous musical adventure to The Super Secret Seashell Cave, which is covered from floor to ceiling with shells collected by a bat from all around the world!

Along the way they meet new friends like Bobby Jo Beetle and her two moms, Squeaky Squirrel, Spacy the Monkey [who was adopted by a baboon], and a stubborn, yellow cow who just won’t mooove!

With over a dozen original songs that teach children about shells, bats, treehouses, counting by fives, and more, kids [and adults] will be learning, singing, and dancing all the way to The Super Secret Seashell Cave!

Perfect for road trips or fun afternoons. Running time: 55 mins. $12.99

Video: Comedian Sarah Silverman calls out marriage discrimination on ‘The View’

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Comedian, actress, and writer – Sarah Silverman – is forceful and blunt when she talks about marriage equality.

On a recent airing of “The View”, Sarah said:

“I cannot imagine wanting to get married at this time in America. If you’re for equal rights, why would you want to get married? It’s like joining a country club that doesn’t allow Blacks or Jews. There’s no difference.”

Silverman was dating talk show host Jimmy Kimmel for some time, and now she’s seeing “Family Guy” writer and producer – Alec Sulkin.

New episodes of The Sarah Silverman Program can be seen Thursdays, 10:30PM/9:30.

WATCH:

‘With (more than) a little help from my family’: The story of a Texan surrogate

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ProudParenting had the opportunity to learn more about surrogacy from a woman who carried twins for a couple. Dawn [pictured] says that she enjoys being pregnant, her husband and family are supportive – and her friends are curious and concerned.

Dawn and Jeremy will be visiting the family she helped enlarge and will be speaking on a surrogacy panel as part of Israel’s first Rainbow Families conference – February 12, 2010. Dawn’s story embodies Circle’s belief that a successful surrogacy is a process in which families help create other families.

Here’s a quick Q&A with Dawn:

PP: So many prospective parents are asking for help from surrogates to help them build families. Much of the conversation between new parents and expecting parents involves our needs and our feelings. Please help us understand surrogacy from a surrogate’s point of view by offering insight from your own experience as a surrogate.

DAWN: Surrogacy is a very complex ordeal that involves getting pregnant in order to have a child for another family, one with whom you will probably have no interaction ever again. This in itself goes against so many natural instincts that a woman has. You also have to look at how the woman’s family will take this. Will her children accept what is about to happen? How will the husband feel knowing that there is a baby developing in his wife that does not belong to either of them? These are very hard issues that a woman has to ask herself and work through before she can truly say she will do it.

PP: Why did you become a surrogate?

DAWN: I chose to be a surrogate because I enjoy being pregnant and I feel that if a couple really wants children then there should be options for them. My Husband and I initially thought we would have to undergo infertility treatments due to a childhood accident he had. But we ended up having two wonderful daughters without treatments and we also adopted our niece. But we watched several of our friends go through infertility treatments. We saw how hard it was for them, the stress, hope, despair, some anger, and then when they did get pregnant – the overwhelming joy! At that time I was unable to help them, as I was still young and a fairly new mother.

PP: Circle screens each carrier’s partner before they are accepted to the program – as a team. Did having your own family affect your role as a surrogate?

DAWN: I had to be sure that not only I was ready but my family would be able to do this too. When my youngest was 8 years old and with our family being complete, I felt that I am capable of helping someone in a situation like this, so I started thinking about surrogacy.

My family was very supportive and helped a lot around the house. My husband went to all of my doctor appointments, recorded ultrasounds and sent them to the parents. My girls sat and played games with me and watched movies with me while I was on bed rest. My mother lives with us and she was a big help, and she had a great time buying things for the twins. She enjoyed it so much she even threw her own baby shower for the parents!!!

Being a surrogate also brought my family closer. My husband and I became even closer emotionally, and my girls and I developed new respect for each other. My husband and my girl’s relationships also got stronger.

PP: Were you anxious about your relationship with the prospective parents?

DAWN: Going into this for the first time I wasn’t sure what to expect. How much the intended parents would want to be involved in my life? Would they try to impose their beliefs and tell me how I should be taking care of my body? If they were a state side family, would they want me to travel to them a lot? If an overseas family – how would they be involved enough to bond with their baby?

PP: Tell us about your relationship with the parents.

DAWN: Circle did a wonderful job matching me and my family with a wonderful couple. They have the same views as we do on so many things. We just clicked right from the start. In fact as soon as we met them for the first time, my whole family turned to me and said, “When are you getting pregnant?”

Our intended parents understood that it was my whole family doing this not just me. My family were the ones who dealt with my mood swings, morning sickness, being tired and then the bed rest. My girls had to do without their mother attending things I always had in the past, like first day of school. They were very understanding when we didn’t do as much on vacations and weekends because mommy just couldn’t walk anymore, or was too tired.

PP: What’s it like to carry twins?

DAWN: Carrying twins was like skipping a trimester. I barely had two weeks of my energy back after morning sickness was over before going into “third trimester feelings.” I was retaining water and swelling, so I spent a lot of time in bed with my feet up. Yet I enjoyed being pregnant again, and watching a family growing was amazing.

PP: Support systems can be very helpful for surrogates as they go through the stages of becoming pregnant, and pregnancy. Were your friends also supportive?

DAWN: My friends were concerned or at the very least curious. After the birth some wondered if I’m having attachment issues and were hesitant to mention the issue fearing it was a sore subject for me. I was shocked because I believe I am an open person and I have willingly answered questions in the past. I like talking about being a surrogate. From implantation to birth I felt no attachment. It was more like I was babysitting someone else’s children.

My children, husband, mother and friends ask about the twins and if I got any pictures. My family gets excited and love to see how the parents are enjoying the twins so much. I have a good relationship with the parents – we’re friends and are now considered extended family.

New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Fujita speaks for Generation Y

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Last year, New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Fujita vocally supported a march for GLBT rights – while on a Sirius XM Satellite Radio radio show.

“Just because I’m in favor of gay rights doesn’t mean I’m gay,” Fujita [31] told radio host Dave Zirin. “I know who I am. My wife knows who I am.”

Fujita, who played at Berkeley – and his wife Jaclyn – have twin daughters who are 2-years old.

In Tuesday’s Super Bowl session with members of the news media, Fujita said his teammates give him some gentle teasing in the locker room for his public opinions.

Fujita said, “It’s just me standing up for equal rights. It’s not that courageous to have an opinion if you think it’s the right thing and you believe it wholeheartedly.”

Lesbian albatrosses are new moms

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A lesbian royal albatross couple – on the Otago Peninsula of New Zealand – have become proud parents.

The chick, which hatched last week, is one of 17 birds born this year in the South Island – the only mainland breeding colony of the endangered animal in the world.

A spokesman from the Department of Conservation, Robin Thomas, said while same-sex pairings have occurred before, it’s “not common”.

“One of them obviously mated so their egg was fertile,” Mr Thomas said.

“Only one egg was laid and that’s now hatched.”

He said the female birds shared time on the egg and that the baby, which struggled for the first 24 hours, was now doing well.

The local tourism bureau, Tourism Dunedin, has put out the call for suggestions of what to name the new addition.