American Academy Of Pediatrics Backs Gay Marriage & Adoption

Joe.My.God. reports:

The New York Times reports the big news: 

The American Academy of Pediatrics declared its support for same-sex marriage for the first time on Thursday, saying that allowing gay and lesbian parents to marry if they so choose is in the best interests of their children. The academy’s new policy statement says same-sex marriage helps guarantee rights, benefits and long-term security for children, while acknowledging that it does not now ensure access to federal benefits. When marriage is not an option, the academy said, children should not be deprived of foster care or adoption by single parents or couples, whatever their sexual orientation.

From the group’s abstract:

Extensive data available from more than 30 years of research reveal that children raised by gay and lesbian parents have demonstrated resilience with regard to social, psychological, and sexual health despite economic and legal disparities and social stigma. Many studies have demonstrated that children’s well-being is affected much more by their relationships with their parents, their parents’ sense of competence and security, and the presence of social and economic support for the family than by the gender or the sexual orientation of their parents. 

Lack of opportunity for same-gender couples to marry adds to families’ stress, which affects the health and welfare of all household members. Because marriage strengthens families and, in so doing, benefits children’s development, children should not be deprived of the opportunity for their parents to be married. Paths to parenthood that include assisted reproductive techniques, adoption, and foster parenting should focus on competency of the parents rather than their sexual orientation.

Suck it, Mark Regnerus.

Here’s why Joe Jervis mentions Mark Regnerus (from ThinkProgress):

Mark Regnerus’s “family structure” study has been a hot topic since it was released in June, namely becauseeverysingleanti-gayconservativeorganizationhas cited it as evidence that same-sex couples are inferior parents. An internal audit by the academic journal that originally published it found the conclusionsto be “bullshit”because Regnerus’s criteria was whether a kid’s parent ever had a same-sex relationship, regardless of how long it lasted or what role in played in parenting. In anew interview with Focus on the Family— a group invested in continuing to cite the study to oppose LGBT equality — Regnerus admits that the foundation of his study is too weak to draw the conclusions that many have made:

• REGNERUS: I got taken to task for leaning on young adults’ assessments of their parents’ relationships. I didn’t ask them whether they thought their mom was a lesbian or if their dad was gay. Because, in part, self-identity is a different kind of thing than behavior, and lot of people weren’t “out” in that era. I think we can all think of moms and dads when we were growing up that we either knew or suspected were gay or lesbian, but never “came out of the closet,” so to speak. So, I didn’t want to make the assumption that these young adults would identify their parents as gay or lesbian, so I kept the focus on relationship behavior. […]

And when pushed, a lot of people who were critics of mine will say: “Yeah, we know that, obviously, family structure matters,” and then they’ll complain, “Why didn’t you find many stably coupled lesbians?” Well, they just were not that common in the nationally representative population. There were two cases where they said the mom and her partner lived together for 18 years. There was another several who lived together for 15 or 13 years. So, stability in the sense of long-term was not common. And frankly, it’s not all that common among heterosexual population. I take pains in the study to say this is not about saying gay or lesbian parents are inherently bad. […]
I’d be more careful about the language I used to describe people whose parents had same-sex relationships. I said “lesbian mothers” and “gay fathers,” when in fact, I don’t know about their sexual orientation; I do know about their same-sex relationship behavior. But as far as the findings themselves, I stand behind them.
So, Regnerus’ study was not about parents who openly identify as gay or lesbian. It was not about same-sex couples in long-term relationships raising children together. Regnerus even admits “this is not about saying gay or lesbian parents are inherently bad,” because he knows has no foundation on which to make such a claim. This was a study about unstable couples, possibly in sham marriages, who may have dabbled in same-sex relationships outside of their original marriage at a time when there was no recognition for same-sex couples anywhere in the country. In others words, the study’s results havezeroimplication for conversations in 2012 about out, committed same-sex couples who are already raising children.
Focus on the Family may be invested in the fraudulent portrayal of Regnerus’s study, but by conducting this interview to draw more attention to it, the anti-gay organization managed to prove that the research has no applicability to the marriage equality and same-sex adoption debates to which it has been applied.

So yeah. Suck it, Mark.

Rachel Maddow On PFLAG’s Founder Jeanne Manford

Get a box of tissues for this. I mean it.

United Kingdom: Invisible Parents

National Adoption Month: One Gay Family’s Response To Mitt Romney

The Four 2012: Stories From Washington 

Zach Wahls Speaks At The DNC

Germany: Cool Dad Nils Pickert Wears Skirt In Solidarity With His 5-Year-Old Son 

The Huffington Post reports:

When it comes to supporting his son’s unconventional wardrobe, Nils Pickert talks the talk and walks the walk.
The German dad explains in Emma magazine that he wears women’s clothes (including nail polish) to help his 5-year-old son feel good about going out in dresses and skirts.
A picture of Pickert and his little boy, sporting matching red clothes — dad in a long skirt, son in a spaghetti-strap dress — has been making the Internet rounds, inspiring enough positive feedback to cancel out a thousand sideways looks and gender marketing fails.
Pickert says that in the small town where he lives, his son’s dress choices are seen as everybody’s business — and when it comes to standing up for his son, he’s determined to show, not just tell. He writes (according to Tumblr user steegeschnoeber’s translation):
Yes, I’m one of those dads, that try to raise their children equal. I’m not one of those academic daddies that ramble about gender equality during their studies and then, as soon as a child’s in the house, still relapse into those fluffy gender roles: He’s finding fulfilment in his carrier and she’s doing the rest.
Thus I am, I know that by now, part of the minority that makes a fool of themselves from time to time. Out of conviction.
Pickert is not the only parent to speak up for a child whose dress preferences stand out from the norm. American mom Cheryl Kilodavis, who wrote a picture book called “My Princess Boy” about her son Dyson, went on The Today Show in January 2011 to discuss the importance of accepting children for who they are — no matter what they wear. “Sooner or later my hope is that the world will embrace the uniqueness that is really within all of us,” she told Meredith Vieira.

In Emma, Pickert says that he chose to become the “role model” he knew his son needed. Chances are his actions will set an example not just for kids, but for parents, too.

Zach Wahls Speaks To The BBC

USA: Jury Finds Preacher Guilty Of Kidnapping Daughter Of Lesbian Mom

Joe.My.God. reports:

Finally we have some (partial) resolution in the case of Lisa Miller, the “ex-gay” mom who kidnapped her daughter to Nicaragua rather than obey multiple court orders that awarded custody to her former partner. Via the Hartford Courant:

A Mennonite minister was found guilty on Tuesday of aiding and abetting international kidnapping by helping a woman flee to Nicaragua with her daughter to evade court orders giving visitation rights to her former lesbian partner. The case has drawn widespread attention as gay rights groups and evangelical Christian groups have taken opposing sides in the legal battle between the two women over Isabella Miller-Jenkins, now 10. Federal prosecutors say Kenneth Miller of Stuarts Draft, Virginia, helped orchestrate Lisa Miller’s flight to Canada and Nicaragua in 2009 with her daughter out of Christian solidarity with her decision to reject homosexuality and her former partner. The two Millers are not related. The jury deliberated only a few hours before finding Kenneth Miller guilty. He faces the possibility of three years in prison. No sentencing date was set.

I said “partial” because NOW we need to see some felony conspiracy counts for Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver and his accomplices.

UPDATE: Holy shit, this is great! The lesbian mom of the kidnapped girl, Janet Jenkins, filed a RICO lawsuit against hate groups suspected of conspiracy on the case: 

On the same day that a preacher was found guilty of abetting the kidnapping of her daughter to Nicaragua, Janet Jenkins filed a RICO lawsuit against many of the parties suspected of conspiring in the crime, including Liberty University, the parent of the vile anti-gay hate group Liberty Counsel, whose president Mat Staver is specifically named in the suit.

Hoo-motherfucking-RAY!

The RICO Act (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) provides for civil lawsuits against ongoing criminal enterprises involving multiple parties. Right Wing Wingexcerpts the suit:

Unbeknownst to Plaintiff Janet Jenkins, in 2009 Victoria Zodhiates (now Hyden) was an employee of Response Unlimited, Inc., and also a “student worker” at Liberty University School of Law. On information and belief, Victoria Zodhiates sent an email during this time period to her co-workers at the law school requesting donations for supplies to send to Lisa Miller to enable her to remain outside the country. Lisa Miller’s attorney, Matthew Staver was the Dean of the Law School and Ms. Zodhiates’s boss. Matthew Staver and Philip Zodhiates were also personal acquaintances at this time. On September 20, 2009, both Philip Zodhiates and Victoria Hyden called Lisa Miller’s father, Terry Miller in Tennessee to assist in arranging her and Isabella’s transportation from a Walmart parking lot in Lynchburg, Virginia, to Waynesboro, Virginia, from whence they would depart for Canada and Nicaragua the next day.

We will follow this suit VERY closely as it proceeds! Now let’s see if the feds file some actual criminal charges for all parties. Liberty Counsel spokesdouche Matt Barber is spinning the lawsuit as an honor.

“Moron Of The Week” Inductee Bryan Fischer: Christians Should Kidnap The Children Of Gay And Lesbian Parents

Joe.My.God. reports:

[…] on JMG we’ve been following the case of Lisa Miller, the “ex-gay” woman who kidnapped her daughter to Central America after losing several court cases that awarded custody to her former partner. The preacher accused of facilitating that crime is about to go on trial, prompting American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer to issue calls for an anti-gay “Underground Railroad” to help shield the kidnappers of the children of gay parents.

As you may recall, that “Underground Railroad” already exists in the form of the virulently anti-gay Liberty Counsel, as the kidnapped child was found living in the Nicaraguan home of the father of a Liberty Counsel employee. Over at Dead Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, students were taught that it’s sometimes best to obey “God’s laws” rather than “man’s laws” and that “righteous kidnapping” in cases such as Lisa Miller’s were justified. Those classes were taught by Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver and Lina Lindevaldsen, both of whom represented Miller in her failed custody attempts. The students were then tested on whether they’d break the law for God.

That semester’s midterm exam, obtained by Religion Dispatches, included a question based on Miller’s case asking students to describe what advice they would give her “as a friend who is a Christian lawyer.” After laying out a slanted history of the protracted legal battle, the exam asked, “Lisa needs your counsel on how to think through her legal situation and how to respond as a Christian to this difficult problem. Relying only on what we have learned thus far in class, how would you counsel Lisa?”

Students who wrote that Miller should comply with court orders received bad grades while those who wrote she should engage in civil disobedience received an A, the three students said. “People were appalled,” said one of the students, adding, “especially as lawyers-to-be, who are trained and licensed to practice the law—to disobey that law, that seemed completely counterintuitive to all of us.” Still, some knew what they needed to “regurgitate,” in order to get a good grade. “It was obvious by the substance of the class during the semester the answer that they wanted,” said one of the students. “The majority of people that I am acquainted with who did get As wrote that because it was expected of them.”

As word broke late last year that the federal government was about to find Lisa Miller, Fischer and other anti-gay sites declared that the FBI had been infiltrated by the “gaystapo.”

Lisa and Isabella are not free. The FBI is after them. At any time, they may be captured. At any time, Isabella may be kidnapped by the FBI and her mother arrested. America is resurrecting Sodom with a vengeance, supported by the formidable power of the State. While Christian social services in the US are losing their traditional right to help children because they refuse state orders to adopt children to homosexual couples.

Fischer’s tweets from yesterday (at the top of this post) have generated widespread condemnation, which is an everyday occurrence when he bloviates on any topic. But this time even some anti-gay and Christian sites are backing away from him, resulting in today’s flurry of “clarifications.”

I recommend reading last week’s exhaustive New York Times cover story on the kidnapping. We can only hope that after the preacher’s trial will come multiple conspiracy counts for Mat Staver and his Liberty Counsel accomplices.

UPDATE: And he ain’t backing down on his call to kidnap kids of LGBT parents:

MSNBC Host Thomas Roberts To Marry Longtime Partner Patrick Abner

Queerty reports:

[…] MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts has been out since 2006 and come late-September, longtime partner Patrick Abner will make an honest man out of him. 
Roberts and Abner will marry in Manhattan with 150 guests in attendance so in preparation, Roberts has flown into full bridezilla mode.  He told The New York Observer, “I was on the treadmill for three miles this morning. I will be on it for three miles tomorrow. I had a Red Bull for lunch and I eat gum. I’m the typical groom!”
You say groom, we say “where’s the veil?”
After being canned at CNN — not a result of his coming out or so he claims — Roberts resurfaced at MSNBC where he’s taken a decidedly less objective stance than the silver-haired squire of Gloria Vanderbilt. Though he doesn’t necessarily make a beeline to LGBT-centric stories, Roberts believes that his seshuality can be an asset when covering them.
“Because I am who I am, I can provide a different viewpoint, because people at home might know who I am or where I’ve come from—and that’s O.K.,” the blushing anchor said.
His relative forthrightness doesn’t mean that Roberts begrudges Mr. Johnny Coming-Out-Lately. Rather, Roberts sounds proud of his former colleague. “Now people can stop asking me when do you think Anderson’s going to come out,” Roberts said. “I have had that for years! And I think it’s great … I think he’s in a place now where he wants that personal-professional synergy. And he deserves that.” […]

NEW MEXICO: Christian School Rejects Gay Family

Mary Cheney Got Marries Her Long Time Partner Heather Poe

The DC Caller reports: 

Mary Cheney, the openly gay daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has married her long-time partner Heather Poe, The Daily Caller has learned.

Cheney spokeswoman Kara Ahern confirmed to TheDC that the couple married Friday morning in Washington, D.C.

In a statement provided to TheDC, both the former vice president and his wife, Lynne, said they are “delighted” the couple could have their “relationship recognized.”

“Our daughter Mary and her long time partner, Heather Poe, were married today in Washington, DC,” the Cheneys said.

Poe and Mary Cheney have two children: Cheney gave birth to a son in 2007, and a daughter in 2009. They live together in Virginia.

“Mary and Heather have been in a committed relationship for many years, and we are delighted that they were able to take advantage of the opportunity to have that relationship recognized,” the Cheneys said. “Mary and Heather and their children are very important and much loved members of our family and we wish them every happiness.”

“We are all so happy for Heather and Mary and their beautiful kids,” friend and former Cheney adviser Mary Matalin told TheDC. “Happy and moved by the blessing of their commitment and strength.”

Mary Cheney’s sexual orientation has long been known, but she and her family said that it should not be used as political issue throughout her father’s political career.

“This is a baby,” Mary Cheney said in 2007 about her son. “This is a blessing from God. It is not a political statement. It is not a prop to be used in a debate by people on either side of an issue. It is my child.”

Jimmy LaSalvia of the conservative GOProud organization celebrated the news on Friday, telling TheDC, “Mary and Heather have had a tremendous impact on the way America views gay people.”

“Simply by living their lives openly, honestly, and as authentic conservatives, they have done more to change hearts and minds in this country than any gay advocacy group,” he said. “This is one more way that they are demonstrating that gay Americans are just like everyone else. Good for them.”

Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch