This is a bit off topic for me to be posting, but it is certainly relevant to LesbianFamily.org.

From the Equality Maryland press release:

“The American Civil Liberties Union and Equality Maryland today denounced the divided Maryland Court of Appeals decision upholding a state law that bars same-sex couples from marrying and accessing the hundreds of family protections provided to married couples and their children under state law.

The vote in the case was 4 to 3. One of the dissenting judges said the legislature should either be required to adopt civil unions or marriage. The other two said that the case should be sent back to the lower court for a trial to see if government has a good enough reason to bar same-sex couples from marriage.

The majority opinion rejects the ACLU’s arguments that barring same-sex couples from marriage is sex discrimination. While the court agrees that marriage is a fundamental right, it says there is no fundamental right to marry someone of the same sex. The court says gay people aren’t entitled to special protection from the court because, although there has been a history of unfair discrimination against gay people, as a group gay people are not politically powerless. The court then uses the least demanding form of constitutional analysis to determine if the ban violates the state’s equal protection guarantees, and says that excluding same-sex couples from marriage might rationally be related to fostering procreation, so the state can continue to deny same-sex couples the ability to marry and its family protections.”

Speaking of fostering procreation, I was really hoping that my baby might be able to enjoy some of the benefits of having legally married parents, but bigotry and ignorance have won the day in Maryland.

Send a little love over to Chris (and her partner Susan) at Not the Mama. Susan had a very bad ultrasound on Thursday and is taking cytotec to help her body deal with the not viable embryo.

So sorry for your loss, friends, and I hope the next insem turns out to make your family a healthy baby.

Like Trista, I had hoped that my return to LF would be with a much longer and interesting post than this one, but alas, it is not.

I did, however, want to share this tidbit from your neighbours to the North. A study, (commissioned back in 2003 when Canadians were embroiled in the same-sex marriage debate) recently came out that states:

the vast majority of studies show that children living with two mothers and children living with a mother and father have the same levels and qualities of social competence.

It bears noting that the author of the study had to request a copy of it through the Access to Information Act, as he believes the current Conservative government was stalling on its publication. The findings of the report contradict their political leanings on the subject, and they are now distancing themselves from it, stating that there is “very little reasearch in this area”.

Of course, “family” groups are refuting the findings, calling the study biased and wringing their hands, stating that the “natural family” no longer has special protection in Canada. They also want it noted that “women just don’t make good dads”.

Uhg. I sometimes want to get up in arms about this kind of baloney, but I rarely have the energy. I am teaching a course this summer on Motherhood and Mothering, and it just takes 10 minutes of reading to realize that the nuclear “natural” family is a modern invention, and yo, thanks to patriarchy, often men don’t make good dads.

So there you go. In case you were worried (which I know you all weren’t, but just in case), lesbian parents are just as good as straight parents.

This week, I bring you more lesbian legal news from Ontario, Canada.

In July of last year, lesbian parents in Ontario won the right to have both women register on a child’s birth document, called the Statement of Live Birth. Before this decision, the non-bio mom was required to adopt her own child, usually waiting six months or more for this to go through, and often having to pay $1500 to $2500, depending on the lawyer. Our family didn’t qualify for this change for 2 reasons: One, our son was already born (the province had one year to make the changes) and two, we used a known donor (meaning we had to have him sign away his rights or be legally vulnerable if he ever requested custody).

My partner therefore had to adopt our son and just las month we completed our second parent adoption. Even though we were able to complete this before he was a year old, let me tell you, it was a serious pain in the a**. The Ontario registrar general can really rub salt in the wounds when you are trying so desperately to recreate family over here. As the birth mom, I was the only one allowed on the statement of live birth, and when requesting a birth certificate (which is the next step) I received not one, but two requests for his “father’s” first name (not last, because of course, he OBVIOUSLY has his “father’s” last name). Even though we had sent a letter stating why there was no father, even though we had left it BLANK, they still wanted to make sure I wasn’t denying some man’s rights to this kid.

Which brings me to my real point! Last week, after the adoption was finalized we filled out a new statement of live birth, placing my partner’s information in the “father’s” section. I found it odd that the form had yet to be changed, or that there was no alternate form, as same sex couples in Ontario have been adopting children for over 10 years now. On Thursday of last week, my neighbour witnessed the signing of our new statement of live birth, and I sent it off, registered mail.

THE NEXT DAY, I received an email from our friends at the LGBT Parenting Network about the change in language on the forms, due to the decision in July. I couldn’t believe this had come so shortly after having filled out the old form, and resigned myself to the fact that our son’s statement of live birth/birth certificate would be an historical document with his mother as the father. I opened up the document to see the changes anyhow. And what have been the changes? After “father”, they have included a slash (/) and the words, “other parent”.

Pardon? “Other” parent? What’s the deal here? What is “other” about my partner’s parenting? Why can’t she also be a mother?

First of all, let’s give a great big shout out to the people of Arizona, shall we? Thanks for being the first state to reject a ballot initiative imposing a ban on gay marriage!

And we also have to celebrate the defeat of uber-homophobe Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania. Thanks, people of Pennsylvania!

We should also celebrate the likely election of the first female Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. While that isn’t strictly a GLBT issue, it is a feminist victory!

(Aside: Pelosi is also the last protege of the late progressive political genius, former Congressman Philip Burton. Harvey Milk was another one of Burton’s proteges. If you are a progessive activist and you have not read the bio of Burton, drop what you are doing and read it right now. I mean it. Do not wait. I would loan you my copy if I could. And by loan, I mean I would bring it to your house, hand it to you, and not go away until you started reading.)

On a sadder note, the other 7 states with anti-gay ballot initiatives passed them. My home state, Wisconsin, passed it by an even larger margin than Virginia.

I’m also feeling depressed about the local results here in Georgia, which keeps being described as “the bright red star in an otherwise overwhelmingly blue election” and “the bright spot for Republicans.” The results were as expected, but the prospect of a “President Purdue” are still stomach-churning.

Maybe we should move to Massachusetts. Deval Patrick is awesome, and we could get married.

Go give some love to Bri & Wes, who learned today — after 8 weeks of expecting — that the heartbeat is gone.