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Include your family in the 2010 Census

Submitted by Jeff on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 11:45am
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Same-sex couples everywhere can report as 'husband or wife'

How do you describe your household partner? Take our poll...

"The 2010 Census will be the first to report counts of both same-sex partners and same-sex spouses," explains Adrienne Critcher of PACE, Louisiana's LGBT political outreach group that's working with U.S. Census Bureau.


Czech activists demand adoption rights for registered partnerships

Submitted by Jeff on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 8:20am
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2,000 people signed and delivered a petition demanding that homosexuals living in registered partnerships be allowed to adopt children. The petition was delivered to Czech Human Rights Minister Michael Kocab.

Under current family law, only married couples can adopt children.

The registered partnership law for homosexuals was passed with the narrowest margin in March 2006. To make it through, the legislators inserted a clause banning adoptions by homosexuals.


Maryland State Senate to debate gay marriage prohibition

Submitted by Jeff on Thu, 03/11/2010 - 2:06pm
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A Maryland state senator has introduced a measure that would prohibit the state from recognizing gay marriages authorized elsewhere without legislative approval.

Sen. Nancy Jacobs, R-Harford, says her bill is intended to invalidate a recent opinion from Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler.

2/26/2009


Two Michigan mothers argue over custody

Submitted by Jeff on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 12:09pm
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A female Michigan couple tests the boundaries of parental custody - with a lawsuit brought by the non-biological mother of their daughter and twin boys.

It's a battle that may reach the Michigan Supreme Court - and possibly secure joint custody rights for nonbiological, unmarried partners, gay or straight.

The Detroit Free Press reports:


NCLR settles same-sex parent custody dispute

Submitted by Jeff on Sun, 03/07/2010 - 6:32am
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National Center for Lesbian Rights [NCLR] announced the resolution of the custody dispute between Kim Smith and Maggie Quale in Santa Cruz, California.

According to NCLR - while in a committed relationship for over two years - Smith and Quale had twins together using donated sperm. The couple paid a sperm donor $540 for his donation from their joint bank account. They had twins, and raised them together for approximately six months before breaking up.


Marriage equality becomes reality in D.C.

Submitted by Jeff on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 1:39pm
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At least 50 same-sex couples lined up to apply for marriage licenses the day gay unions became legal there.

Sinjoyla Townsend, 41, and her partner of 12 years, Angelisa Young, 47, claimed the first spot in line just after 6 a.m. They are already domestic partners in the city, so they are converting that partnership into a marriage license.


Two moms must share custody between California and Texas

Submitted by Jeff on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 7:20am
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A Bay Area woman has won the right to parental status and visits with the daughter of her former lesbian partner - who moved away when their daughter was 3-months old.

Charisma R., had been fully involved in conceiving and taking care of the child and was legally the child's co-parent. The ruling also allows her to argue for reimbursement of the costs of traveling to Texas, where her ex-partner lives with their now 6-year-old daughter.


Lisa Miller faces arrest in Vermont custody dispute between moms

Submitted by Jeff on Tue, 02/23/2010 - 10:43am
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A woman who is locked in a child custody battle with her former lesbian partner - and has renounced homosexuality - is facing arrest if she doesn't appear in a Vermont court with the child.

Family Court Judge William Cohen is holding a hearing in the custody battle between Lisa Miller of Forest, Va., and Janet Jenkins, of Fair Haven, Vt.


Louisiana court rules state must issue birth certificate to same-sex adoptive parents

Submitted by Jeff on Mon, 02/22/2010 - 2:21pm
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The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Louisiana Registrar of Vital Statistics must respect a New York adoption by a same-sex couple of a Louisiana-born baby boy.

The three-member panel voted unanimously to uphold a lower court ruling in favor of Lambda Legal clients Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith. Adar and Smith are a gay couple who adopted their Louisiana-born son in 2006 in New York, where a judge issued an adoption decree.


Surrogacy decriminalized in Australia

Submitted by Jeff on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 11:22am
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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.


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