Parentage not tied to marriage is better...but how to get lesbian couples to understand this?

The DC Gay and Lesbian Activist Alliance Forum noted last week that a married lesbian couple was told by Sibley Hospital in DC that they would have to present their marriage license to get both of their names on the birth certificate of the child that one of them gave birth to. After alerting members of the DC City Council who enacted parentage reform in 2009 (see here for more info on the law),

Focus in Iowa should be children of all lesbian couples -- not just those whose moms have married

Earlier this month, the Des Moines Register began an article as follows: "The next legal battle over gay rights in Iowa could come from a same-sex couple determined to have both their names listed on their child's birth certificate."Anyone who reads this blog knows I can get behind a demand like that, but there's a catch in this instance. The article describes litigation in Iowa that will affect

Why our new DC parentage law matters

Thanks to Shannon Minter for passing along to me a blog post by a lesbian couple in DC who would have been helped by our new parentage law. Nothing awful happened to them without it, but their family wasn't recognized without a whole lot of effort and money. Read about them here.

Landmark D.C. law grants parental status to two mothers

In the first law of its kind in the country, the District of Columbia confers the status of legal parent on both lesbian mothers who plan a child using donor insemination. The law states that a person who consents to a woman's insemination with the intent to be a parent of the resulting child is a parent of the child. Consent must be in writing. If there is no written consent, it is still

DC OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL STILL FALLS SHORT

My July 25 post described the District of Columbia's official response to proposed legislation that would solidify the parental relationships of same-sex couples and their children in this city. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) wrote an offensive and ignorant letter, and then sent no one to the actual hearings on the bill.Earlier this month, the same office responded to the lengthy

SAFEGUARDING OUR FAMILIES -- FROM THE IGNORANCE OF OUR SUPPOSED ALLIES

The District of Columbia is a gay-friendly place. Our first anti-discrimination ordinance was passed in 1973. In 1976, we passed legislation banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in child custody cases. The first second-parent adoption was granted in 1991, and our highest court approved the practice in 1995.We have had domestic partnership here in DC since 1992, although