Tag Archives: gay families

Michael Brown writes for Charisma News: To the leadership of Bethany Christian Services, I make this heartfelt appeal as a fellow disciple of Jesus who also cares about the wellbeing of needy children. Please reconsider your decision to provide services for gay and lesbian couples wanting to adopt. Please ask yourselves again: Is this decision truly honoring to the Lord …

The New York Times reports: One of the country’s largest adoption and foster care agencies, Bethany Christian Services, announced Monday that it will begin providing services to L.G.B.T.Q. parents nationwide effective immediately, a major inflection point in the fraught battle over many faith-based agencies’ longstanding opposition to working with same-sex couples. The Michigan-based evangelical organization announced the change in an …

From Anderson Cooper’s Instagram account: I want to share with you some joyful news. On Monday, I became a father. This is Wyatt Cooper. He is three days old. He is named after my father, who died when I was ten. I hope I can be as good a dad as he was. My son’s middle name is Morgan. It’s …

The MediaPost reports: Last year for LGBTQ Pride Month, Verizon produced a tearful one-minute video that showed several young people calling their parents to inform them for the first time that they’re gay. The YouTube video also showed up on the MTV Music Awards. All those phone calls “end happily, if occasionally tearfully,” as MediaPost reported. But these kinds of …

The Washington Post reports: Children of same-sex couples perform better in school than kids raised by a mom and a dad, according to new research from several European economists. The researchers found that children raised by same-sex couples had higher test scores in elementary and secondary school and were about 7 percent more likely to graduate from high school than …

The Times of Israel reports: Protesters briefly blocked the Ayalon freeway in central Tel Aviv on Sunday morning amid demonstrations across the country, as the LGBT community began an unprecedented nationwide strike in protest of Israel’s failure to include gay couples in its surrogacy laws. The main southbound artery through the city was temporarily blocked by thousands of marchers waving …

Haaretz reports: A Knesset committee on Wednesday approved a draft law sponsored by the government itself, allowing single women who cannot conceive to obtain surrogacy services in order to build a family. With the approval of the Knesset’s Labor, Welfare and Health Committee, The bill can now proceed to its second and third readings into law. The committee rejected propositions …

Reuters reports: Only heterosexual families can form a family, Pope Francis said on Saturday, when he also condemned abortion and hailed the “sanctity” of women who forgive cheating husbands. “It is painful to say this today: People speak of varied families, of various kinds of family,” but “the family [as] man and woman in the image of God is the …

The Huffington Post reports: As a 19-year-old University of Iowa engineering student, Zach Wahls stood before the Iowa House of Representatives and gave an impassioned speech defending his two lesbian mothers. A video of the speech went viral, amassing millions of views. Seven years later, Wahls is hoping to occupy a seat in the very chamber where he made his …

Via press release: Americans United for Separation of Church and State criticized Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer for signing Senate Bill 284 into law. The measure gives taxpayer-funded adoption and foster care agencies a right to use religion to deny children loving homes by discriminating against prospective parents. This is a troubling trend: Oklahoma enacted a law like this last week …

The Wichita Eagle reports: A bill that ensures faith-based adoption agencies can turn away gay and lesbian couples based on religious beliefs will be signed into law by Gov. Jeff Colyer. Kansas lawmakers passed the legislation after an intense debate early Friday. One suggested the need for the legislation proves the existence of the “homosexual agenda” while another said the …

The Associated Press reports: Oklahoma legislators approved a measure Thursday to grant legal protections to faith-based adoption agencies that cite their religious beliefs for not placing children in LGBT homes and lawmakers in Kansas were close to passing a similar measure. The Oklahoma House’s 56-21 vote sent its measure to Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, who has not said whether she …

The Associated Press reports: Mississippi’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a woman has parental rights to a 6-year-old boy born to her ex-wife when the two were married, in a case watched by gay rights activists and groups aiding in vitro fertilization. Christina “Chris” Strickland brought the appeal, challenging a lower court decision that an anonymous sperm donor still had …

The Associated Press reports: A bill that opponents say would allow religious-based adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples, single people and non-Christians has cleared the Oklahoma Senate. Senate Bill 1140 passed 35-9 Tuesday and now heads to the House. The bill would cover child-placing agencies that block adoptive parents who do not meet the agencies’ religious or moral standards. …

The Georgia Voice reports: The Georgia Senate on Friday morning passed a bill that would allow adoption agencies to refuse to place children with same-sex couples based on their religious beliefs. The bill would also prohibit the Georgia Department of Human Services from taking “adverse action” against such agencies. The bill passed 35-19 and will now head to the House …

The Georgia Voice reports: The Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning passed a bill that would allow adoption agencies to refuse to place children with same-sex couples based on their religious beliefs. The bill would also prohibit the Georgia Department of Human Services from taking “adverse action” against such agencies. There were no public comments allowed, and the bill …

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports: A Kentucky Family Court judge who refused to hear adoption cases involving gays and lesbians has been found guilty of misconduct by the state’s Judicial Conduct Commission. The commission issued a public reprimand Tuesday against W. Mitchell Nance, who announced his intention to resign earlier this year amid the ethics and misconduct inquiry. That resignation was …

Via press release from Lambda Legal: The Supreme Court of Hawai’i today heard oral argument in the case of C.C. v. D.D., in which Lambda Legal is urging the Court to uphold a lower court ruling that, just like different-sex spouses, same-sex spouses must be treated as the presumed parents of children born during their marriage, with equal rights and …

CBS News reports: An Arkansas judge on Friday blocked the state from issuing any birth certificates until officials are able to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the state’s birth certificate law illegally favors heterosexual parents. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox on Friday set aside his orders requiring the state and three same-sex couples go into mediation …

Via press release from Lambda Legal: Yesterday Kentucky Family Court Judge W. Mitchell Nance notified Governor Matthew G. Bevin and the Commonwealth of Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission of his resignation. In May, Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kentucky, Kentucky’s Fairness Campaign, and University of Louisville Law Professor Sam Marcosson filed a complaint against Judge Nance …