Tag Archives: Category: Marriage and Family

AP: But the Brevard County couple separated two years later, and the birth mother eventually left Florida with the child without telling her former lover. The woman who donated the egg and calls herself the biological mother finally tracked them down in Australia with the help of a private detective.

Dahlia Lithwick at New Yorker: That is the story that Dale Carpenter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, seeks to untell in his important new book, “Flagrant Conduct” (Norton), a chronicle that peels the Lawrence case back through layers of carefully choreographed litigation and tactical appeals, back to the human protagonists we never really got to know, and back again through centuries of laws criminalizing “unnatural” sexual activity.

AP: The 4,000-member First Presbyterian Church in Colorado has taken another step toward leaving its denomination.

Adam J. MacLeod at Public Discourse: Recent attacks on marriage threaten not only a foundational public institution but the rule of law itself and the legitimacy of the judicial branch.

NCPA Policy Digest: Columbia University looked at federal aid data from 1996 to 2008 and found that, on average, colleges raised tuition $17 in response to every $100 of Pell Grant aid.

Karla Dial at Citizen Link: When it comes to marriage and family structure, there’s a good reason nearly every modern society has encouraged monogamy as the accepted norm: Because it’s good for society. So says a new multidisciplinary study published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, the world’s longest-running scientific journal, established in 1665.

CBS: New York City celebrated the opening Thursday of what city officials say is the nation’s first full-service senior center designed specifically for the gay community.

The Advocate (a homosexual advocacy website, embeds video of Christie): New Jersey governor Chris Christie made a careful distinction today by separating “gay marriage” from “gay rights,” which he says he supports.

Bloomberg: Governor Chris Christie said he expects to win passage of a limited school-voucher program this year, even as the state’s largest teachers union tries to block.

Episcopal News Service: Two of Maryland’s three Episcopal bishops said March 1 that they will allow diocesan clergy to solemnize same-gender marriages in that state when a marriage equality law signed that day goes into effect.

Washington Post: The Senate Judicial Proceedings committee heard testimony this week on a bill that would prohibit discrimination in public accommodations, housing and employment based on “gender identity,” which would take its place alongside race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation and disability.

Chicago Tribune: Gay marriage in Delaware is inevitable, the state’s Governor Jack Markell said on Friday,a day after neighboring Maryland became the eighth U.S. state to legalize marriage for same-sex couples.

Washington Blade (“the newspaper of record for the LGBT community.”): The Washington Blade received statements from the offices of 21 Democratic senators — including Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) — expressing support for including a marriage equality plank in the Democratic Party platform. The Blade solicited statements from all 53 Democratic senators and will update this article as more senators respond.

Baltimore Sun: “The way forward is always found through greater respect for the equal rights of all,” said O’Malley, giving brief remarks before signing the legislation. “If there is a thread that unites all of our work here together, it is the thread of human dignity. … Let’s sign the bill.”

Volokh Conspiracy: D accused father of physically abusing her, and is now in foster care. The father says “D was lying about the physical abuse and was an ‘out of control’ teenager.” The father is awaiting trial on the physical abuse charges.

NewsObserver.com: Voters will see this on the ballot: “Constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State.”

KTVA.com (includes video): Those who oppose Proposition Five say a new report shows faith-based organizations would be forced to go against their beliefs if the ordinance is passed. The report is by Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian organization based in Arizona . . . “People will understand that there is a lot more to it than just equal access,” said Jim Minnery of the Alaska Family Council.

Jackson Sun: Haywood County High School’s principal has resigned after a national civil rights organization said she made anti-LGBT remarks and threatened to expel gay students.

ADF seeks to intervene on behalf of Hawaii Family Forum to defend marriage against lawsuit

Family Research Council Washington Update: First they were “cowards.” Now, suddenly, “they are bigots and haters–they who stood tall against discrimination, who marched and sat in, who knew better than most the pain of being told they were less than others. They are black men, successful ministers, leaders of their community… who have stood on the front line of the campaign against same-sex marriage,” the Washington Post explains.

AP: The Washington-based campaign’s directors voted to hire Chad Griffin, 38, to replace outgoing president Joe Solmonese . . .

SCOTUS Blog: UPDATED 7:20 p.m. This post has been updated with the filing of a second brief opposing en banc review, by the city and county of San Francisco. That brief, too, is linked in the post.

CBS: Forget the modest 3.1 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index, the government’s widely used measure of inflation. Everyday prices are up some 8 percent over the past year, according to the American Institute for Economic Research.

Washington Post: A Senate committee Thursday killed a bill that would allow Virginia’s tens of thousands of home-schooled students to play sports at their local high schools.

Washington Times: For the armed service’s most tradition-bound service, the one that most opposed lifting the ban last year, the transition seemed complete when a spokeswoman at Marine Corps Base Hawaii told a local TV station, “It’s your typical homecoming photo.” The gay rights movement is applauding . . .

AP on Google: With Maryland poised to legalize gay marriage, some conservative opponents and religious leaders are counting on members of their congregations, especially in black churches, to upend the legislation at the polls this fall.

Wall Street Journal: . . . voters overwhelming support Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s call to put the issue up for a public referendum, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday . . .

Mary Nurrenburn at Pasadena City College Courier: Does any one group or person have the right to dictate who is allowed to get married? Religious organizations such as The National Organization for Marriage and Alliance Defense Fund wants the public to believe that same sex marriage is unconstitutional. On the ADF website it states that it stands, “to protect the freedoms our forefathers intended” and that it aims to “preserve marriage as being between one man and one woman.”

F.E. Cornejo at Pasadena City College Courier: DOMAWatch.org, a site devoted to providing legal information to uphold the tradition of marriage states . . . Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the Christian based legal counsel institution that represents Protect Marriage, has a clear stance. “With God’s grace, ADF and our allies will continue to fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary, to uphold marriage as the union between one man and one woman.” This past weekend, ADF established National Pray for Marriage Day . . .

Peter Sprigg at the Washington Times: Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr called it “reprehensible,” “deplorable” and “disgusting.” . . . Perhaps the flier triggered anger because it calls into question a widespread myth – that people are “born gay.”

Alana S. Newman at Public Discourse: The fertility industry is booming because we desire genetic and memetic immortality—the preservation and reproduction of our bodies and ways of life.

American Federation for Children: Governor Jan Brewer today signed legislation increasing the amount of maximum allowable donations to the state’s Individual School Tuition Organization Tax Credit Program, a move that is expected to increase access to the nation’s oldest scholarship tax credit program.

LifeSiteNews: Teenagers are directed to a website, TeenSource.org, where, after filling out the request form, they can have a free package of ten condoms along with lubricant and sex-ed literature mailed to their home addresses in a plain yellow envelope.

KHOU.com: “Respectfully, if you cannot uphold the Texas constitution, then you should do the honorable thing and step down,” Pastor Steve Riggle of Grace Community Church wrote in an e-mail to Parker’s office.

San Francisco Chronicle: Support for same-sex marriage in California has never been higher, with 59 percent of the state’s voters backing the legalization of gay nuptials, according to a new Field Poll.

ADF Attorney Austin R. Nimocks at Townhall: Throughout the push for the judicial overthrow of California’s marriage amendment, arguments were made about how it was time to quit peeking into people’s bedrooms, or allegedly singling out those who practice homosexual behavior. Sexuality was a private matter, some argued, and that shouldn’t affect public decisions, or so the argument went. However, that was then, and this is now. The Administration Office of the Courts in California is now making sure gays and lesbians are adequately represented on the judicial bench . . .

Kokomoperspective.com: Gilbert Holmes, the ACLU of Indiana’s executive director, said FSSA’s new rule is contrary to the whole notion of family values. “Here is a family member taking care of a family member, and the state wants them to pay for someone else to do that job,” said Holmes. “It seems like a dehumanizing and callous approach to addressing the need of a segment of humanity that cannot fend for itself.”

MyFoxPhoenix: The Human Rights Campaign of Arizona held its annual event for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families on Sunday.

James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal: Over the past few weeks, this column has on more than one occasion expressed agreement with Rick Santorum’s view that advances in birth control have had deleterious social consequences, most notably in contributing to the breakdown of the family. To our surprise, a not-insignificant number of our readers have pushed back against this idea, which some find counterintuitive and others downright unthinkable. So we’d like to go through the argument step by step.

NJ.com: So all involved did what they said they’d do. Nobody blinked. And we have a stand-off. What will happen next? Probably nothing visible for a while.

JD Journal: Many have placed blame on student debt for bad home sales in the United States.

PennLive.com: “With three “open and out” candidates seeking state House seats this year, chances are better than ever that Pennsylvania’s gay and lesbian community will have its first known voice in the General Assembly at this time next year.”

Business Insider: But the senator’s move may create some waves within the party considering that she also happens to be one of the co-chairs of President Obama’s national reelection committee. As you know, the president has yet to officially support same-sex marriage, though he has softened his stance on the issue.

Baltimore Sun: Though Gov. Martin O’Malley hasn’t even inked his freshly passed law legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland, a group of faith leaders has already filed paperwork to start a petition drive aimed at repealing it.

One News Now: “The appeals court in Texas has stopped the recall election because one of the supporters of the recall election was supposedly a church, and according to the Texas appeals court, a church cannot be involved in a recall election,” reports Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney Joel Oster

AP: Harvard students and faculty are planning a rally to urge administrators to award posthumous degrees to seven students expelled from the Ivy League school in 1920 because they were gay or perceived to be gay.

Huffington Post: A Maryland-based priest is garnering heat in the blogosphere today after allegedly denying communion to a lesbian parishioner attending her mother’s funeral.

Bet.com: Tonya Parker says until same-sex licenses are legal in Texas, she will not sign the forms.

Washington Post: Scientologists say the “study technique” is non-religious. Critics of Scientology say that the materials use language important in Scientology’s religious teachings, and the program is a way to start indoctrinating young children into Scientology doctrine.

NY Times: The county party’s chairman, Ralph C. Lorigo, said Senator Grisanti had lost its trust after twice telling party executives, in 2008 and 2010, that he was not in favor of same-sex marriage, and then voting last year to legalize it.

Union Leader: The sponsor of a measure to repeal the state’s same-sex marriage law says he plans to propose a floor amendment to try to win over opponents — one that may remove its “religious liberty” clause if that’s what it takes to pass it.

National Catholic Reporter: Opponents, however, are expected to gather the almost 56,000 signatures needed to put the issue to a statewide referendum in November.

Des Moines Register: The poll found that 38 percent favor a legislative initiative to pass a constitutional amendment, while 56 percent are against. Six percent aren’t sure.

Jennifer Fulwiler at NC Register.com: A couple of weeks ago, our priest gave a homily about contraception. While speaking about the Health and Human Services mandate, our associate pastor, Fr. Jonathan Raia, made a few allusions to the fact that the Church believes that contraception is bad. There were over a thousand people packed into the building, and a slight but noticeable tension developed as he inched closer and closer to the subject

Rick Santorum at the Wall Street Journal: In your editorial “Romney’s Tax Reboot” (Feb. 23) you state that my tax plan would triple the child credit. This is incorrect. My plan triples the personal exemption for dependent children, not the child credit. The effects are far different.

One News Now (AP): Three GOP congressional leaders are appealing a federal judge’s ruling that declared a law prohibiting the government from recognizing same-sex marriages to be unconstitutional.

Weekly Standard: In order to make sure gays and lesbians are adequately represented on the judicial bench, the state of California is requiring all judges and justices to reveal their sexual orientation. The announcement was made in an internal memo sent to all California judges and justices.

Stars and Stripes: The Army is ordering its hardened combat veterans to wear fake breasts and empathy bellies so they can better understand how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training.

AP: Old child support debts could cost thousands of poor men their only income next year because of a policy aimed at reducing the cost to the government of mailing paper checks to pay federal benefits.

American Federation for Children: Students enrolled in the Milwaukee voucher program are more likely to graduate from high school and go to college than their public school counterparts, boast significantly improved reading scores, represent a more diverse cross-section of the city, and are improving the results of traditional public school students, according to a comprehensive evaluation of the program released today.

Melanie Baker at Public Discourse: The law cannot be divorced from reality, from nature. The moment this happens, law becomes arbitrary, the whim of the ruling power: it becomes tyranny.

Mercury News: Moving swiftly, gay marriage foes on Friday appealed a San Francisco federal judge’s order this week finding the federal government’s ban on same-sex marriage benefits unconstitutional.

WABI.tv: Secretary of State Charles Summers announced today that enough valid signatures have been submitted to place “An Act To Allow Marriage Licenses for Same-sex Couples and Protect Religious Freedom” before the Maine State Legislature.

One News Now: One Christian pediatrician is raising ethical concerns with parents allowing children who believe they were born the wrong gender to undergo hormone treatments, and later surgery to physically change their gender.

The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, acting on behalf of more than half of America’s uniformed chaplains, is expressing concern about the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent refusal to defend the Department of Defense against a lawsuit concerning benefits for same-sex couples in the military.

Justin Dyer at Public Discourse: Many expect that the Supreme Court will soon overturn the traditional marriage laws remaining on the books in forty-three states, a prospect that would have been unthinkable only a decade or two ago. What happened?

Trayce Hansen at Christian Civic League of Maine: Men and women bring diversity to parenting; each makes unique contributions to the rearing of children that can’t be replicated by the other. Mothers and fathers simply are not interchangeable. Two women can both be good mothers, but neither can be a good father. So here are five reasons why it’s in the best interest of children to be raised by both a mother and a father:

One News Now: “The people of California deserve to have their marriage amendment defended before the full appeals court. The panel’s ruling mischaracterized the purpose of marriage, failed to faithfully and fairly interpret the Constitution, and disregarded every relevant appellate and Supreme Court precedent in American history,” Raum comments. “Marriage is too valuable to be redefined by two San Francisco judges in a case funded by Hollywood millionaires.”

CNN: The Maryland Senate voted Thursday evening to legalize same-sex marriage, the latest sign of growing national recognition of such unions among gay and lesbian couples.

MPRNews: “A lawsuit brought by three same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses in Hennepin County may be headed to the Minnesota Supreme Court on a technical matter.”

Christian Century: As the only Southern state without a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage, North Carolina is the next battleground, with religious groups on both sides bracing for a high-stakes fight on May 8.

LifeSiteNews: A 14-year-old homeschooler who testified before the Maryland state senate against a bill redefining marriage has been the subject of cyberbullying, vicious name-calling, and death threats.

Fox News: The Alliance Defense Fund filed suit Tuesday on behalf of Geneva College, a Christian-affiliated school in Pennsylvania. The ADF also filed suit over the weekend on behalf of Louisiana College, a private Baptist institution. Separately, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has filed suit on behalf of four groups . . .

Cal. Catholic Daily: The people of California deserve to have their marriage amendment defended before the full appeals court,” said ADF Senior Counsel Brian Raum. “The panel’s ruling mischaracterized the purpose of marriage, failed to faithfully and fairly interpret the Constitution, and disregarded every relevant appellate and Supreme Court precedent in American history. Marriage is too valuable to be redefined by two San Francisco judges in a case funded by Hollywood millionaires.”

Family Research Council: For the homosexuals in OutServe, the basic goal is OutCry. Since the overthrow of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the organization of “actively serving LGBT personnel” has planted 42 chapters on military bases–all with the common goal of tearing down the Defense Department’s (and by extension, society’s) marriage policies from within.