Proud Parenting

LGBTQ Parents - Lesbian Moms & Gay Dads

Poll shows Americans changing opinions about gays and lesbians

By

“It is a sea change in attitude. You’d be hard-pressed to find an issue that has had a bigger shift in public opinion,” said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. He’s referring to a survey the Institute conducted which shows a strong majority of U.S. citizens support marriage equality.

Also, a majority say they wouldn’t be upset or very upset if a child were gay, up dramatically from a generation ago. And an overwhelming majority say it would make no difference to them if a candidate for Congress were gay.

proudparenting81614

The research shows the shift is driven by young people – and those who are familiar with gays and lesbians in their families and daily life.

People aged 18-29 overwhelmingly favor same-sex marriage. Also, the number of Americans who say they know someone who’s gay has skyrocketed over the last decade and a half. And those who know someone who’s gay are almost twice as likely to support same-sex marriage.

via McClatchy DC

Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio fight for marriage equality

By

On August 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals will hear challenges to laws banning marriage equality in Kentucky (two cases), Michigan, Ohio (two cases), and Tennessee. Oral argument will begin at 1 p.m. Eastern.

This is the most marriage cases that any federal circuit court has ever heard in a single day, and the fourth argument to be heard by a federal circuit court since the United States Supreme Court’s decision last summer striking down DOMA.

kentuckyohiomichigan73114

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is representing plaintiffs in Tennessee, American Civil Liberties Union is co-counsel in case representing plaintiffs in Ohio, and Lambda Legal is representing plaintiffs in Ohio.

Since the Supreme Court’s June 2013 decision, there have been a total of 34 rulings in favor of the freedom to marry in 31 cases from 26 different federal and state courts involving the marriage laws of the United States and 21 states including Utah, Ohio, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The Tenth and Fourth Circuits heard oral arguments earlier this year. The Tenth Circuit issued rulings on June 25, 2014, and July 17, 2014, in cases from Utah and Oklahoma. The Fourth Circuit issued a ruling on July 28, 2014, in a case from Virginia. All three decisions held that same-sex couples have a fundamental right to marry.

via press release

Marriage equality gaining ground with young evangelicals

By

reformation7814

There’s a movement for equality building among evangelicals, particularly younger ones. Forward-looking evangelicals are forging connections with each other and creating spaces in which it’s okay to be evangelical and pro-equality.

Approximately 50 people were flown from around world (including Canada, China, Nigeria and South Korea) to a 4-day Bible boot camp dedicated to discussing, and embracing, gay relationships. The gathering was organized by Matthew Vines, who created a YouTube video in 2012 in which he delivers an hour-long lecture arguing that the Bible does not, in fact, condemn all same-sex relationships. The video has gone viral, with more than 730,000 views to date, landing Vines on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Styles section and helping him raise $100,000 for the conference, where he launched The Reformation Project, a nationwide network of pro-gay evangelicals committed to ending their church’s longstanding hostility toward gay people.

“We must prepare people for what the future holds, when Christian beliefs about marriage and sexuality aren’t part of the cultural consensus but are seen to be strange and freakish and even subversive,” Russell Moore, chief political spokesman for the Southern Baptist Convention, wrote in an April blog post. As if in confirmation of Moore’s warning, the following month, a Southern Baptist congregation outside Los Angeles became the first in the 16 million-member denomination to vote to accept gay worshippers even if they are in relationships. “I realized I no longer believed in the traditional teachings regarding homosexuality,” the church’s pastor, Danny Cortez, wrote in an online statement.

via Daily Kos

Second annual same-sex wedding survey highlights trends in LGBT nuptials

By

TheKnot.com and The Advocate announced the results of their second annual same-sex wedding survey. The study looks at many aspects of weddings, from the engagement to the honeymoon, comparing the traditions that same-sex couples are following in our wedding ceremonies with those of straight counterparts, and how we’re making nuptials unique with our own traditions.

theknot

Top Stats from TheKnot.com and The Advocate Same-Sex Weddings Survey

  • As marriage equality continues to be legalized in more states across the country, the words “commitment ceremony” and “civil union” are becoming scarcer. Eighty-two percent of same-sex couples refer to this occasion as their wedding in invitations, up from 70 percent in 2013.
  • Seventy-one percent of same-sex couples will have a ceremony and reception, as opposed to 96 percent1 of straight couples. Twelve percent of same-sex couples will only have a ceremony, and 7 percent of couples are planning to simply host a reception.
  • Same-sex couples are less likely to have a formal proposal (58 percent) than straight couples (94 percent).
  • Proposing with a ring is not as common for same-sex couples, with about two out of three couples (62 percent) exchanging an engagement ring before or after the proposal.
  • When it comes to wedding attire, nearly all (91 percent) of same-sex couples know what their partner is wearing in advance, with 49 percent of male same-sex couples and 20 percent of female same-sex couples wearing matching outfits.
  • As a nod to customary wedding wear, 42 percent of both female and male same-sex couples are wearing a suit or tuxedo as their wedding day attire.
  • The “walk down the aisle”: Less than half (45 percent) of same-sex couples did or plan to walk down the aisle. Of those couples, 59 percent of female same-sex couples will be escorted by a family member, along with 37 percent of male same-sex couples.
  • Forty percent of male same-sex couples and 30 percent of female same-sex couples plan to walk down the aisle together.
  • Straight couples are more likely to tie religion into their ceremony (63 percent), while only 38 percent of same-sex couples will incorporate religion.
  • Writing vows is more common for same-sex couples, with nearly half (49 percent) writing their own, compared to about one in four (23 percent) straight couples.
  • Only 35 percent of same-sex couples plan to set up a wedding registry, compared with 87 percent of straight couples.
  • In a more traditional move, a 79 percent 1 of straight brides will change their last name to the groom’s last name, while 54 percent of same-sex couples will keep their given last names. Forty-one percent of female same-sex couples and 23 percent of male same-sex couples will change their last name to their partner’s.
  • Although same-sex couples are spending less on average ($15,849) on their weddings than straight couples ($29,858 1), they’re having more intimate affairs (77 guests on average versus 138) and still investing just as much on their guests, with an average spend of $205 per head (compared with $220 per head for straight couples).
  • When it comes to finances, 85 percent of same-sex couples are paying for their wedding themselves, compared with only 13 percent of straight couples.
  • The 63 percent of same-sex couples going on a honeymoon are taking more luxe trips than straight couples, with an average spend of $4,965, compared to $4,744 for the 77 percent of straight couples who take a honeymoon.

via press release
photo: TheKnot.com

Obama to extend Family and Medical Leave Act

By

President Obama is directing the Department of Labor to propose a rule which allows legally married couples the benefits of the Family and Medical Leave Act in all 50 states – even where gay unions are not legal. The FMLA allows employees to take unpaid, job-protected leave for family and medical purposes.

obama62014

The rule is being issued as Attorney General Eric Holder announces the results of a review of U.S. laws in the wake of the landmark 2013 Supreme Court Windsor decision that held that the survivor of a same-sex couple could claim the federal estate tax exemption for surviving spouses.

The decision forced the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages in states where it is legal and has paved the way for the Obama administration to take steps to expand the legal rights of gay couples.

via Reuters

Obama: ‘It’s not just laws that are changing, it’s hearts and minds’

By

President Barack Obama told gay donors Tuesday that American society and its laws have advanced the cause of gay rights over the past 10 years but said the job was hardly over in the US and especially abroad. “It’s not just laws that are changing, it’s hearts and minds,” he said before supporters at a Democratic National Committee fundraising dinner for GLBT donors.

US-POLITICS-OBAMA

To a raucous embrace, President Barack Obama told gay donors Tuesday that American society and its laws have advanced the cause of gay rights over the past 10 years but said the job was hardly over in the US and especially abroad.

“It’s not just laws that are changing, it’s hearts and minds,” he said before 550 supporters at a Democratic National Committee fundraising dinner for GLBT donors.

He received a loud standing ovation when he declared that he had directed the White House to prepare an executive order barring discrimination by federal contractors on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Obama lacks authority to extend that protection to all Americans.

He wants Congress to pass a broader non-discrimination measure that would apply to nearly all employers.

He urged supporters to keep pressure on Congress, noting that there are more states that allow same-sex marriage than have laws specifically protecting gays against workplace discrimination.

via AP

Photo credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Congratulations to our friends in Wisconsin

By

Clerks in Madison and Milwaukee began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples shortly after 5 p.m. Friday, a little over an hour after the judge released her ruling. More marriage licenses could be issued over the weekend, even though Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said the ruling did not clear the way for weddings to begin. Van Hollen has sought an emergency order in federal court to stop more marriage licenses from being issued.

wisconsin6714

The ACLU filed a lawsuit this February saying the ban violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to equal protection and due process. It said the eight couples named in the suit and others like them had been deprived of legal protections that married couples enjoy simply because of their gender.

Gay rights activists have won 15 consecutive lower court cases since a landmark Supreme Court ruling last summer, with Wisconsin being the latest.

via Newsmax.com

To Florida Attorney General Bondi: Discrimination inflicts harm, not our marriages

By

By Nadine Smith, CEO of Equality Florida

nadine6514

My wife and I married in Vermont in 2009, and we committed, in front of friends and family, to love, cherish and protect each other for the rest of our lives. Our son Logan, now three years old, only added to our joy as a family. However, we live and work in Florida, a state that refuses to recognize us as a family.

To add insult to the ongoing injury of denying our marriage, Attorney General Pam Bondi has taken the position that recognizing marriages of couples like us would “impose significant harm.” Those are the words she used in a brief calling for the dismissal of a lawsuit that would recognize gay couples married in other states. Worse, AG Bondi invokes the outrageous and thoroughly debunked claim that impugns gay couples who are raising children.

“Florida’s marriage laws have a close, direct and rational relationship to society’s legitimate interest in increasing the likelihood that children will be born to and raised by the mothers and fathers who produced them in stable and enduring family units.”

Bondi is now trying to spin the content of the brief and distance herself from her own words, claiming she is a neutral defender of the marriage ban amendment approved by voters in 2008.

Under a hail of criticism, Bondi released a statement that attempts to walk back inflammatory portions of her brief, by pretending they don’t exist. She tries to explain away the “public harm” comments as a misunderstood state’s rights argument. She doesn’t address her parenting salvo or her outrageous claim that Florida should continue to gain financially by denying gay married couples access to benefits that we pay for just like everyone else.

But Bondi can’t get around the fact that she is authorizing the state of Florida to make those pernicious arguments, which are based on invidious stereotypes about same-sex couples and our families. By way of contrast, even when it was defending DOMA, the US Department of Justice refused to rely on any asserted justifications for DOMA based on child welfare because it acknowledged the scientific consensus that same-sex parents are just as fit and capable as different-sex parents.

She also can’t get around the fact that she swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States as well as Florida’s. She can’t ignore the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality. She can’t ignore the 19 consecutive victories since the high court ruled handed down by judges appointed by Republicans and Democrats alike. Attorneys General and governors across the country, aware of their duty to protect the basic rights of their residents, have declined to defend anti-gay marriage bans precisely because it is clear to them that these laws are both morally and constitutionally indefensible.

Florida has changed dramatically since 2008, when voters approved an anti-gay marriage amendment. Our state now leads the South, with 57% in favor of marriage equality.

The tide has turned, and the day is coming when anti-gay marriage laws will meet the same fate as laws banning interracial marriage that limited my parent’s options.

As Judge Robert J. Shelby said in his ruling against Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage, “While the State cites an interest in protecting traditional marriage, it protects that interest by denying one of the most traditional aspects of marriage to thousands of its citizens: the right to form a family that is strengthened by a partnership based on love, intimacy, and shared responsibilities.”

My wife and I married because we love each other. We wanted to demonstrate our commitment and ensure we could take care of each other in every way possible. Our son deserves to have his parents’ marriage respected and our family protected under Florida law.

United Church of Christ sues North Carolina to allow marriage equality

By

ucc42814

Holy Covenant United Church of Christ, the United Church of Christ (UCC), along with ministers of other Charlotte area congregations including a rabbi, filed a lawsuit challenging state marriage laws for restricting ministers’ free exercise of religion. The UCC is also seeking preliminary injunction that would allow ministers to choose whether to perform a religious marriage. Ministers who do marry a couple that has not yet obtained a marriage license can face misdemeanor charges punishable by up to 120 days in jail. The case appears to be the first time a national Christian denomination has challenged a state’s marriage laws.

The lawsuit has been in the works since 2012, when North Carolina voters approved Amendment One, a constitutional ban on marriage equality, with 61% of the vote. State laws prevent ministers from performing weddings if the couple does not already have a marriage license, and so religious wedding ceremonies are at odds with the law even if ministers are not sanctioning civil marriages.

via TIME.com

Six Same-sex Couples and Equality Florida Institute file lawsuit seeking the freedom to marry in Florida

By

florida818florida818Equality Florida
Six Miami couples are filing a lawsuit in Florida state court that argues that Florida’s laws barring same-sex couples from marriage violate the US Constitution by denying them the legal protections and equal dignity that having the freedom to marry provides. Four of the couples are raising children, and another couple has an adult child and two grandchildren.
One plaintiff said, “Florida is our home, it is where we are raising our child, and where we want to get married. Karla and I wish for our family the same things that other families want. We want to build our lives together, provide a safe and caring home for our child, and share in the responsibilities and protections of marriage.”

 

Said attorney Elizabeth F. Schwartz: “As someone who has spent nearly two decades helping same-sex couples and their families achieve some measure of legal protection under Florida law, which gives us very few tools, I know too well just how difficult the process can be and how much vulnerability these couples face. The protections we are able to cobble together without marriage pale in comparison to the comprehensive security provided by marriage recognized not just by the federal government but by the State of Florida.”