California

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.

The AP reports:

A Santa Cruz court is slated to hear a custody dispute between two women who are former partners - in which the biological mother has become romantically involved with the sperm donor father of her 10-month-old twins.

Kim T. Smith of Santa Cruz has sued for joint custody of the twins, saying she and former partner Maggie Quale agreed to raise the boys together.

Right-wing political mastermind - Frank Schubert - has acknowledged his lesbian sister in press interviews.

Now Anne Marie Schubert, currently a deputy district attorney for Sacramento, announced she's running to be a Sacramento County Superior Court judge.

Schubert's campaign website says she is a law and order and victim's rights judicial candidate with several endorsements from the county’s local law enforcement organizations.

The Oceanside, CA lesbian whose doctors denied her infertility treatment based on her sexual orientation has reached a settlement with her former physicians in her historic lawsuit against them.

The AP reports that voters in three states will decide this fall on whether to reverse gay rights initiatives ranging from anti-discrimination measures to marriage benefits.

In Maine, voters will decide whether or not to uphold the state's legalization of same-sex marriage. In Washington state, a so-called "everything but marriage" law that expands the state's current domestic partnership law will be on the ballot. And in Kalamazoo, Mich., voters will decide on an ordinance that prohibits discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals.

The San Jose Mercury News reports on The Roots and Wings Foundation, a national initiative dedicated to promoting the importance of foster care

TGIF! I hope that those who are celebrating Labor Day this long weekend have a great time - I know I will.

New York - A history of crime and drug addiction spanning two decades should not bar a man from being able to adopt, so says a New York judge who credited the man's attempt to turn his life around. This ruling will allow this man and his wife to be placed on the adoption list. His last conviction was 1995, and he claims to be clean and sober since 2000 when he was released from prison. Many think it was a good decision - what about you? I know what Bill O'Reilly would say.