TIME: Children of Lesbian parents do better

I'm wondering if it were proven that straight families children were better adjusted if "Time" magazine would have chosen to use the word "may" in the title of their article, "Study: Children of Lesbians May Do Better Than Their Peers"? The study proved they DID do better not that they "MAY" do better.

The authors found that children raised by lesbian mothers — whether the mother was partnered or single — scored very similarly to children raised by heterosexual parents on measures of development and social behavior. These findings were expected, the authors said; however, they were surprised to discover that children in lesbian homes scored higher than kids in straight families on some psychological measures of self-esteem and confidence, did better academically and were less likely to have behavioral problems, such as rule-breaking and aggression.

"We simply expected to find no difference in psychological adjustment between adolescents reared in lesbian families and the normative sample of age-matched controls," says Gartrell. "I was surprised to find that on some measures we found higher levels of [psychological] competency and lower levels of behavioral problems. It wasn't something I anticipated."

In addition, children in same-sex-parent families whose mothers ended up separating did as well as children in lesbian families in which the moms stayed together.

I knew my partner and I should have given our son to our lesbian friends to raise! Seriously, it took a damned village to raise that kid. Read More...

GetEQUAL & Show Me No Hate take on Rep. Ike Skelton, demand apology

Last week, the Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Ike Skelton, made an ass of himself with some bizarre homophobic comments. Unfortunately, Skelton still plays a pivotal role in the ongoing effort to pass the compromise DADT legislation. He'll be a key player in the House-Senate conference on the Defense authorization bill.

This week, Skelton is facing the wrath of GetEQUAL and the Missouri group, Show Me No Hate.

Via Press Release:

Today, GetEQUAL -- a direct action lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization -- and local Missouri LGBT rights organizations announced the launch of a national campaign (www.getequal.org/missouri.php) demanding Representative Ike Skelton (D-MO) apologize for the homophobic remarks he made last week when speaking about the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law and immediately stop his effort to undercut the repeal of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Additionally, GetEQUAL announced that the group is prepared to turn up the heat with additional actions later this week, unless the Missouri Congressman publicly apologizes today for remarks reiterating his opposition to the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” citing a fear of a “national discussion around homosexuality,” and the posing of an incredibly offensive, homophobic question asking, “What do mommies and daddies say to their 7-year-old child?” -- referring to his own outdated views on discussing the lives of LGBT Americans. The Associated Press reported the remarks Rep. Skelton -- the chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee and an original author of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law back in 1993 -- made to a media breakfast last Tuesday. The full AP story is available here: http://tiny.cc/98msy.

“For the chairman of the House Armed Services committee to make such uneducated and unfounded remarks against repealing 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' is nothing short of shocking and reprehensible,” said Kip Williams, co-founder and co-director of GetEQUAL. “This kind of offensive rhetoric might have slipped by as acceptable to say in 1993, but the country has moved leaps and bounds since then. Unfortunately, it appears that Rep. Skelton hasn’t. He should immediately apologize for this scare-mongering that has no place in the public dialogue currently happening around the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”

Williams continued, “Although Rep. Skelton finds himself in a tough re-election campaign against a right-wing Republican, that doesn’t give him the right to use my community as ammunition to score a few political points. Rep. Skelton can rest assured that he can’t sweep GetEQUAL and our supporters in Missouri under the rug and hope we go away. We will continue calling him out and holding him accountable for as long as he stands in the way of repealing 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' -- effectively supporting a law that fires able-bodied, patriotic gay and lesbian service members in the midst of two wars.”

GetEQUAL’s national campaign targeting Rep. Skelton was launched this weekend with an email blast signed by GetEQUAL and activist Ed Reggi, a local Missouri resident and co-founder of Show Me No Hate, a Missouri grassroots coalition made up of advocates who support full equality for the LGBT community. The email demands “a public apology from Rep. Ike Skelton for his homophobic and inaccurate comments” about the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law and that he “end his public campaign to undercut the effort to repeal” the 17-year-old law. This weekend’s email can be viewed here: www.getequal.org/missouri.php. Unless Rep Skelton publicly apologizes for his comments today, GetEQUAL and a growing number of local Missouri gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocates, organizations, and veterans are prepared to launch further actions later this week.

“Democrats and Republicans alike need to understand that our community is everywhere, and it is not okay to continue with this type of political homophobia,” wrote Ed Reggi, co-founder of Show Me No Hate, in the national email action sent out over the weekend. “We're calling on Skelton to offer a full public apology to the LGBT people in his district, and across the country. It would be bad enough if Ike Skelton were just pretending that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ still makes sense. But based on his comments yesterday, Skelton wants to pretend that LGBT people don't even exist!”

The action alert is here. Read More...

Fierce Trickle

Kerry Eleveld at the Advocate:

While the Obama administration has made more gains toward LGBT equality than any previous administration, it has fallen short of the promise and potential of the times.

So has the Obama administration arguably made more LGBT gains than any other administration? Yes, clearly it has. But the country also just came off eight years of Rovesque Republican rule and the last time we saw a Democrat in office was during the bulk of the 1990s.

One of the headlines out of the panel was, “Record number of LGBT staff in Obama administration.” A good thing, no doubt. But let’s be real: There are probably twice as many openly gay people in Washington thank there were in the ‘90s – myself included.

Then there’s the other accomplishments they touted: the passage of hate-crimes legislation; assuring hospital visitation rights for same-sex partners which the Department of Health and Human Services is currently working on; equality advancements in housing practices at the Department of Housing and Urban Development; and the extension of some benefits to federal workers – not health and pension – but things like being able to take sick time off if your partner falls ill or having your family included in moving expenses if you have to relocate for your job.

It seems fair to say that the trickle of events has flowed into a slow but steady stream of smaller, yet meaningful, policy gains for LGBT Americans. But given that the “hope” president came to the White House endowed with heavy Democratic majorities in Congress and a mandate to forge a fresh course for our country, what could have amounted to a watershed moment for LGBT equality has felt less like a waterfall than the drip from a leaky faucet. Sure, water is getting through, but not nearly enough to fortify or sustain a vilified minority that has been systematically burned by a swarm of homophobic laws that swept the nation as the vast majority politicians either cheered or turned a convenient blind eye.

Read More...

Wash. Post profiles 'Stalwart of the right' Ted Olson on eve of Prop. 8 closing arguments

The closing arguments in the Prop. 8 case are on Wednesday. Today, the Washington Post profiles the conservative half of the legal team arguing the case: Ted Olson. The article apppears above the fold on the front page of paper edition, which means people around town will be seeing this headline: "Stalwart of the right presses the case for gay marriage."

There's not much new for those of us who've been following the case, but there is some griping from Olson's fellow conservatives:

But no one has attracted as much attention as Olson, a tall and lanky man who is approaching 70 but still wears his strawberry-blond hair in bangs. That the man who was a loyal Reagan lieutenant and defended Bush's anti-terrorism policies is now championing gay rights has been too much for some conservatives. M. Edward Whelan III, whose National Review column is influential in conservative legal circles, called the lawsuit "a betrayal of everything that Ted Olson has purported to stand for."

Paul D. Clement, who was Olson's deputy as solicitor general and then took over the job, said conservatives have "come to terms" with Olson's decision, "but those who never understood it are still scratching their heads."

And, there's this:

There was equal suspicion on the left, mixed with disbelief. As one blogger wrote on a gay Web site last year: "Ted Freaking Olson is now better on gay marriage than our president." President Obama has said he favors civil unions, not same-sex marriage.

That unnamed blogger would be John Aravosis who made that observation on May 26, 2009 -- even befor the infamous DOMA pedophilia/incest brief. (And, apparently, AMERICAblog.com is considered a "gay web site" by the Washington Post.)

What John wrote in May of 2009 is still true. Olson is much better on marriage than Obama. While Olson is fighting for our equality in court, Obama's DOJ continues to fight against our rights in Court. Read More...