smart women

Two lesbians have won the right to IVF treatment to help them have a baby after threatening to sue health chiefs. They used controversial new equality laws to launch their case in Scotland's highest civil court yesterday, backed by a government watchdog which believes they suffered 'indirect discrimination'.

Adrienne [pictured] is a student at The Urban School of San Francisco, and is a reporter for The Urban Legend. In the online PBS NewsHour Extra: Student Voice, Adrienne writes that same-sex couples like her parents should be allowed to get married.

My parents have been married twice and may have to get married a third time. I don't come from a broken family, my parents love each other and always have. The only problem is, they're lesbians.

Democratic and Republican members of the US Congress have called on the newly-appointed Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, to take action to ensure that gay and lesbian State Department employees get full partner benefits.

In a letter Congresswomen Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, and Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen joined by Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote:

NewsBlaze reviews Meema Spadola's film about kids of lesbian and gay parents.

Spadola's documentary - called Our House: A Very Real Documentary About Kids of Gay & Lesbian Parents [2000] - is threaded with interviews involving families like ours. Incidentally, Spadola is the daughter of a lesbian. The director uses her own life lessons to examine the diverse experiences our children.

We've got a wide range of women who visit and contribute to ProudParenting.com's network. Some like to comment on articles, some lurk - while reading as much as possible, and many women are writing blogs.

In honor of Mother's Day weekend, we are highlighting some of the women on our site. Six females who have the calling to be a parent. Each has created an insiteful and entertaining blog, and they are featured in our Editor's Picks area [upper right corner of the page].

This week Hillary Clinton told Ellen DeGeneres that she will "defend gay rights as President and eliminate inequality for same sex couples in federal law".

She shared a story about a gay male couple [who lived next door to her parents] denied hospital visitation because they weren't considered "family" under current legislation. One of the men got sick, and they were faced with a horrible situation. See the video below.

Elsewhere in the interview, Ellen and Hillary talk about the possibility of quitting the race for the Democratic presidential nomination because she's behind.

Joan Garry, former executive director of GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) has always been an inspirational activist and hands-on mom. Lately she's been working on a blog with her 18-year old daughter, Sarah (also known as Scout). The website is called Who's The Grownup? - and its premise is engaging.