Date: Mon, 4 Sep 1995 04:52:00 -0700 From: glpcinat@ix.netcom.com (GLPCI - Jim Fagelson) Subject: Parents Network Newsletter attached is the first issue of the Parents Network, a newsletter for and about gay and lesbian parents THE PARENT'S NETWORK This is the inaugural issue of the PARENT'S NETWORK, a bi-monthly service of the GAY AND LESBIAN PARENTS COALITION INTERNATIONAL (GLPCI) that highlights information of interest to lesbian mothers and gay fathers, their partners, children, future parents and persons who are supportive of gay and lesbian individuals who wish to become parents. Our quarterly newsletter NETWORK is available by sending a request via E-mail to "glpcinat@ix.netcom.com" or by writing GLPCI, P.O. Box 50360, Washington, D.C. 20091. If you have received this in error, my apologies. If you know of people who would be interested in receiving this, please have them send a subscription request to "glpcinat@ix.netcom.com This issue of PARENT'S NETWORK is divided into the following categories: News from around the world News from the United States Resources for Lesbian and gay parents Interesting Web sites Action Alerts We appreciate your interest in GLPCI. Jim Fagelson Vice President of Outreach ------------------------------------------------------------ IS THERE A GAY AND LESBIAN PARENTS ORGANIZATION IN YOUR AREA? Lesbian mothers and gay fathers are everywhere, and we need the support of other parents like ourselves. Our children need to know that they are not alone. If you don't have a parents organization in your area, contact GLPCI. If you would like to host an organizational meeting in your area, let us know and we will help yopu get started. E-mail us at GLPCInat@ix.netcom.com with your postal address and we will send you information on how to start a chapter. Let us hear from you. ------------------------------------------------------------------ NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD (source: Rex Wockner News Service) AUSTRALIA: The British Queen's representative in Australia, Governor General Bill Hayden, came out in favor of gay marriage June 21. "Because we do not discriminate against same-sex partnerships, it is difficult to see how there can be a sustainable objection to partnership contracts similar to marriage," he told a doctors' conference. Hayden also said: "The adoption test for them should be the same as for other members of the community. If we dispute this we are trying to roll contemporary mores back, denying equal rights to same-sex partners." Australia, like Canada, is a member of the British Commonwealth. The governor general position is largely ceremonial and the office holder rarely addresses controversial issues publicly. BRAZIL: The night before Brazil's first gay-pride march, held June 24 at the end of the International Lesbian and Gay Association World Conference in Rio de Janeiro, a national television program that acts out stories and then has viewers call in their preferred ending, dramatized a gay couple living with an eight-year-old girl whom they wanted to adopt. Callers voted approximately 80,000 to 50,000 to approve the adoption, according to ILGA delegates who saw the program. This is unexpected given the current climate in Brazil in reference to sexual orientation. CANADA: British Columbia is on its way to becoming the third Canadian province to officially let gay and lesbian couples adopt children, reported Toronto's Globe and Mail. An overhaul of the adoption laws passed first reading in the legislature June 21. Saskatchewan and Quebec already let gays adopt. CANADA: Toronto's new Triangle Program is Canada's first public high school for gay and lesbian students, reported Wayves, a Nova Scotia gay newspaper. Special instruction will be offered in gay/lesbian history, literature and experience. The Toronto Board of Education said it created the program because too many gay/lesbian teens quit high school in order to escape homophobia and heterosexism. CANADA: Fifty-three percent of Quebecois told pollsters that gay couples should have the same rights as married people, reported the newspaper Voir. Thirty percent opposed the notion, eight percent said "it depends," and nine percent had no opinion. Of the 1,002 people questioned the following percentage supported gay equality: 18-24 75 percent 25-34 62 percent 35-44 55 percent 45-54 51 percent 55-64 46 percent Over 65 38 percent CZECH REPUBLIC: The head of the Czech Republic Parliament, Milan Uhde, and the Minister of the Interior, Jan Rumi, support extending marriage rights to gays and lesbians under a registered-partnership law, reported the Prague gay magazine SOHO Revue. "There's no reason why gays can't marry," Rumi said. Uhde said he "carefully considered" the arguments in favor of partnership presented by the gay group SOHO, and thinks the arguments are "important" and forwarded the material to two Parliamentary committees. The partnership bill will be considered this year when Parliament rewrites Czech family law. ENGLAND: A study published recently in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry is being touted by some mental health experts as significant long-term research on the subject of gay and lesbian parents. The study's authors, Susan Golombok and Fiona Tasker from the City University of London, followed children raised in lesbian and heterosexual households from early childhood into young adulthood. They found that children raised in lesbian homes are psychologically healthy and not significantly different from those raised in heterosexual households. NETHERLANDS: The Netherlands will legalize gay marriage this summer, reports Henk Krol, editor of De Gay Krant, Holland's leading gay newspaper. "The Minister of Justice and the Secretary of State for internal affairs have announced that the marriage rules will be changed," Krol said. "Their new rules, that will include gays and lesbians without any restrictions, will be sent to parliament before the summer holidays. "Only (the) CDA (party) and small Christian groups are against it,"Krol said. "We have 150 members of Parliament -- 42 are against, 14 are undecided, 94 will pass the new bill!" Seventy-three percent of Dutch people support gay marriage, a July 5th poll found. More than 100 Dutch cities and towns already allow gays and lesbians to record their relationships in a symbolic "marriage register." Krol indicated that when gay marriage is legalized, the 800 couples that have signed these registers will automatically be legally married. Gay marriage is legal in Denmark, Norway and Sweden but it is technically "registered partnership" and does not include the rights to adoption, church weddings, artificial insemination or in-vitro fertilization. The Netherlands will be the first country to allow gays to marry under the exact same laws as heterosexuals. ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe stepped-up his anti-gay crusade, accusing American political leaders of sacrificing morals to court the gay and lesbian vote. Addressing about 500 demonstrators, mostly women from his ruling ZANU-PF party who had gathered outside his Harare offices in support of his anti-gay stance, Mugabe said: "That madness (homosexuality) we shall never accept here in Zimbabwe." "Leaders of that country (the United States) are scared of losing their positions of power that's why they give in to homosexuals so that they can vote for them," he said in his native Shona language, adding: "Their positions are more important than moral behavior and the word of God. Their position is more important than our humanity." Mugabe's remarks follow a report in the independent Financial Gazette which said 70 United States Congressmen had protested to the Zimbabwean leader over his scathing attacks on gays over the past several weeks, describing his stance as bigoted. Mugabe launched his crusade against homosexuals -- whom he described as sodomists and sexual perverts with no rights at all -- several weeks ago when his government pressured organizers of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair into barring the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe group from participating. On August 12th, he told thousands of people commemorating the country's war heroes that homosexuals were sub-animals "who are no worse than dogs and pigs" and on August 16th told a group of Anglican Church women that it might be necessary to form an international anti-gay movement. President Mugabe dismissed gay-rights activists who have criticized his anti-homosexual comments. "They can demonstrate," he said. "But if they come here, we will throw them in jail." ------------------------------------------------------------ NEWS FROM THE UNITED STATES CALIFORNIA: Jeff Horton, the Los Angeles County School Board's first openly gay member, was sworn in for his second terms. Horton used the occasion to introduce his 5-year-old son, Dante, whom he and his companion, Larry Pickens, recently adopted. Horton was again named chairman of the Board's Committee of the Whole. The Los Angeles school district is the second largest school district in the United States. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ........ COLORADO: "Pediatrics" published a study on the incident of child abuse in various families in July 1994. The study was conducted at the University of Colorado, the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, and Children's Hospital of Denver. The study was conducted because Colorado's Attorney General and former Heritage Foundation employee, Gail Norton, claimed that the State of Colorado needed Amendment 2 to protect children from sexual abuse. Three researchers examined charts of 352 children who had been evaluated for abuse over a period of one year. The sample included 276 girls and 76 boys. Of the 352 children evaluated, case workers confirmed: 269 cases of child sexual abuse by adults. 74 children had been abused by perpetrators age 17 or younger. 9 cases in which it was impossible to identify the age of the perpetrator. 237 cases or 88% involved adults who were either married or in established heterosexual relations with an adult of the opposite sex. 52 percent were committed by one of the child's parents living in a traditional family environment. One perpetrator was identified as a "pedophile", a person who abuses children because of a sexual preference for children. Two cases, only 0.7%, involved a perpetrator who could be identified as being involved in same sex relationships. One child's mother identified her child's perpetrator as "a lesbian". In the other the perpetrator was identified as the man "living with" the father of the child. It was "standard practice" in evaluating child abuse victims in emergency rooms and clinics to ask if the perpetrator lived in a same sex relationship, or had engaged in homosexual relations. The mean average age of the victim was 6.1 years. In 81.5 percent of the cases the victims were girls. From "Adult Sexual Orientation and Attraction to Underage Person", Archives of Sexual Behavior, 1978, Vol. 7(3), by Nicolas Groth and H. Jean Birnbaum: in over 12 years of clinical experience working with child molesters, we have yet to see any example of a regression from an adult homosexual orientation. The child offender who is also attracted to and engaged in adult sexual relationships is heterosexual. It appears, therefore, that the adult heterosexual male constitutes a greater sexual risk to underage children than does the adult homosexual male. ILLINOIS: In the first such ruling in Illinois, a state appellate court allowed a lesbian couple to adopt their children jointly. The couple petitioned for recognition of the children's relationship with both parents in what is commonly called a "second parent adoption". The decision, which applies to all unmarried couples, covers trial courts across the entire state. The couple, identified in court papers as K.M. and D.M., jointly sought to adopt their three-year old daughter, Olivia M., whom K.M. conceived via anonymous donor insemination. The couple live in Cook County (Chicago) and have shared responsibility for Olivia since birth. They wanted the joint adoption to secure a legal relationship between Olivia M. and D.M., without also disturbing the parental rights of the K.M., the biological mother. "This is a profound victory for the many children in Illinois who have two unmarried parents," said Patricia Logue, managing attorney for the Midwest Regional Office of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which represents one of the couples in today's ruling." The court's decision recognizes that the children of gay parents deserve every bit as much security as all other children. Overturning a lower court decision last November, a three-judge panel of the Illinois Appellate Court ruled in the two separate cases that state adoption law allows lesbian and gay couples to adopt together. "Nothing in the [Illinois Adoption] Act suggests that sexual orientation is a relevant consideration -- Sexual orientation is simply not an issue in these cases," wrote Justice DiVito for the unanimous court. ILLINOIS: The ACLU of Illinois represented a lesbian co-parent who sought to adopt her partner's two sons. One child was conceived via donor insemination; the other child was adopted. The decision is the fourth, in recent months, by an appellate court to grant second parent adoptions to lesbian and gay couples. Of the three state supreme courts which have ruled on this issue, Vermont and Massachusetts permitted the adoptions, while Wisconsin did not. In at least 14 other states, trial courts have granted second-parent adoptions, recognizing that they are in the child's best interest. IOWA: Following Radical Right pressure, the Des Moines School Board last January dropped a proposal for the "infusion of sexual orientation issues" in public school curriculum materials. The board action followed anti-gay protests from Radical Right leaders, including Bill Horn of The Report (producer of the anti-gay video, "The Gay Agenda") and right wing radio talk show host Jan Mickelson. School Board member Jonathan Wilson made national headlines when he came out as gay during local hearings on the measure. Since then, right wing state legislators attempted to pass an amendment to the state's appropriations bill that would have banned state funds from being used to "promote or encourage homosexuality" in state colleges and universities. The "no promo homo" measure is similar to those offered by U.S. Senator Jesse Helms. NEBRASKA: The State Department of Social Services instituted a ban on gay and lesbian adoption. The sponsor of the measure, Mary Dean Harvey, director of the Dept. of Social Services, denies any link to the Radical Right. However, the similarity between her ban and a bill before the state assembly (#255) -- sponsored by State Senator Kate Witek -- is acute. Witek is described by local activists as "far right." The state legislation was withdrawn following the announcement of Harvey's measure. NEW HAMPSHIRE: The school board of Merrimack, N.H. voted 3-2 at their August meeting to prevent teachers and guidance counselors from presenting homosexuality in a positive light. The decision drew catcalls from some of the 300 people crowded into the meeting. Many then went outside to join a candlelight vigil in protest of the board's treatment of gay teenagers. School board Chairman Chris Ager defended his proposal, saying it wouldn't lead to a witch hunt, but rather prevent schools from usurping parents' right to raise their children as they see fit. But board member Brenda Grady, a Nashua high school teacher, said controversial subjects are discussed all the time without passing judgment on them. School Board Vice-Chairman Ken Coleman said "this discriminatory policy against gays and lesbians will open the door to discrimination against many other groups. Most of all, our children will suffer. Whether heterosexual or homosexual, they will be taught to hate those unlike them--and the quality of their education will flounder as the community debates religious ideology instead of academics." Policy 6540 -- Prohibition of Alternate (sic) Lifestyle Instruction "The Merrimack School District shall neither implement nor carry out any program or activity that has either the purpose or effect of encouraging or supporting homosexuality as a positive lifestyle alternative. A program or activity, for purpose of this item, includes the distribution of instructional materials, instruction, counseling, or other services on school grounds, or referral of a pupil to an organization that affirms a homosexual lifestyle." NEW YORK: Second Parent Adoptions in New York have been dealt a blow. In the first such case to reach a New York Appellate Court, a panel of judges has ruled that lesbians and gay men cannot adopt their partners' children because they are not legally married. The ruling came in the case of a lesbian couple who have lived together for 19 years. One woman, identified in court papers only as P.I., conceived using an anonymous donor insemination; Dana was born the next year. P.I.'s partner, whom Dana calls "Mommy G.," started adoption proceedings in 1993. The appeals panel noted that New York family law allows both single and married people to adopt children, but the lesbian couple falls into neither of the categories envisioned in the law. The family court ordered a home study done on the family. The report said that Dana treated both women as her parents, and recommended that the adoption be approved. But a family court judge turned down the petition and the appellate court upheld the ruling. The judges said they were not influenced by what they called the couple's "life style", but said that they were compelled to follow state law on adoption. The law says that for an adoption to go through, a biological parent has to give up rights to a child. But in this case, the child has only one legally recognized biological parent, the mother, and she is not giving up her parental rights. The only exception is when a parent marries or remarries, and wants the new spouse to become a legal stepparent. And since the lesbian couple are not married, the court said, that exception does not apply to them. Therefore, only the biological parent can have rights to Dana, the judges ruled. Other states have disagreed with this view. They did so by turning to another family law standard, "the best interests of the child." Under that view, a judge's first consideration is the well-being of the child, not the marital status of the would-be adoptive parent. It is not clear whether the Court of Appeals, the highest court in New York, will agree to hear the case. It already has another adoption case on its docket in which a family court judge turned down an adoption petition because the couple were not married. In that case, however, the couple was heterosexual. OKLAHOMA: On July 18th the Oklahoma Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision, ruled that homosexuality is NOT sufficient grounds to declare a parent unfit or deny custody of minor children.The case is Donna Fox vs. James Fox. As you may remember, VIRGINIA's court ruled, in the Sharon Bottom's case, that the mother's "lesbianism" would cause the child significant stress and therefore was sufficient grounds for declaring the mother unfit and denying custody. WASHINGTON, D.C.: In July 1994, the National Education Association's Representative Assembly (RA) passed Resolution B-8 -- "Sexual Orientation Education." This July 6, 1995, the RA adopted amendment "d" to that 1994 resolution, an amendment which supports the concept of a Lesbian and Gay History Month. Sexual Orientation Education (Passed in July 1994; amendment "d" passed on July 6, 1995.) The National Education Association recognizes the importance of raising the awareness and increasing the sensitivity of staff, students, parents, and the community to sexual orientation in our society. The Association therefore supports the development of positive plans that lead to effective ongoing training programs for education employees for the purpose of identifying and eliminating sexual orientation stereotyping in the educational setting. Such programs should attend to but not be limited to-- a. Accurate portrayal of the roles and contributions of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people throughout history, with acknowledgment of their sexual orientation. b. The acceptance of diverse sexual orientation and the awareness of sexual stereotyping whenever sexuality and/or tolerance of diversity is taught. c. Elimination of sexual orientation name-calling and jokes in the classroom. d. Support for the celebration of a Lesbian and Gay History Month as a means of acknowledging the contributions of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals throughout history. The NEA is located at 1201 16th St NW, Washington D.C., 20036. The phone number for its Division of Human and Civil Rights is 202-833-4000. Also ask for the updated version of "Teaching and Counseling Gay & Lesbian Students". Also ask for their 1991 publication called "Affording Equal Opportunity to Gay and Lesbian Students Through Teaching and Counseling - A Training Handbook for Educators." WASHINGTON, D.C.: The Appellate Court of the District of Columbia overruled a lower courts decision that again allows gay and lesbian parents to obtain "second-parent adoptions". The District had second-parent adoptions until 1994 when a new Justice denied a second-parent adoption based upon her interpretation of the District's adoption law. The case was appealed and a decision was rendered in July that again allows gays and lesbians to have second-parent adoptions. WASHINGTON, D.C.: From a recent news release from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force announcing their publication of BEYOND THE BELTWAY: STATE OF THE STATES 1995 -- A Look At Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Issues At The State and Local Levels ....... Many of the anti-gay measures advanced this year focused on the areas of family and education -- curtailing rights to adoption and foster care and mandating only negative references to gay-related issues and individuals through the educational system. "The Radical Right is successfully exploiting emotional flashpoints around children in the context of family and education," said Robert Bray, NGLTF Field Organizer. "These are areas where myths and misinformation about child abuse, parenting abilities and the existence of diverse family structures ignite fears and inspire extremist legislation. In the name of 'family values,' the Radical Right frequently attacks the ability of gay people to care for our own families and children." WISCONSIN: The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled June 13, 1995 that a lesbian co-parent may seek visitation rights with the child she was raising with her former domestic partner. This was a donor insemination baby that was jointly planned for by the co-parents. When the child was five years old the biological mother terminated the relationship and later excluded her former partner from any contact with the child. The court, overruling its negative precedent on this same issue from 1991, split 4-3 in holding that the co-parent can proceed with the case, invoking the equitable powers of the court to make a decision in the best interest of the child. This establishes a precedent for same-sex partners, who has actively participated in the raising a child, may seek the same benefits to visitation as a parent in a traditional child custody case. ----------------------------------------------------------------- RESOURCES FOR THE LESBIAN AND GAY PARENT A new video is available to teach elementary school children about homophobia and how anti-gay remarks hurt the other children in their school. "Both of My Moms' Names Are Judy" is a 10-minute video produced by the Lesbian and Gay Parents Association of San Francisco and GLPCI as part of an in-service training program for elementary school educators and administrators. It presents a diverse group of children (ages 7-11) who have lesbian and gay parents. In candid interviews, they talk about who is in their family, how it feels to be teased about their parents, how classroom silence about homosexuality affects them, and what they would like to see changed. The video and a complete set of trainig materials can be ordered from the GLPCI Video, P.O. Box 43206, Montclair, NJ 070431, 201-783-6204 (voice or fax). The cost of the video and training manual is $25.00 for an individual and $50.00 for an institution. ----------------------------------------------------------------- INTERESTING WEB SITES GAY AND LESBIAN PARENTS COALITION INTERNATIONAL: At our 1995 International conference in Los Angeles over the July 4th weekend, the new GLPCI Home Page was demonstrated for those in attendance. The new web site offers numerous resources including: statistics on gay and lesbian parents, a bibliography of resources, extensive information on the organization, information on COLAGE, Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere, and links to over a dozen international gay and lesbian web sites around the world. The GLPCI Home Page can be found at the following address: http://www.qrd.org/QRD/www/orgs/glpci/ GLPCI can be contacted at: GLPCI, P.O. Box 50360, Washington, D.C., 20091 (201) 783-6204 E-mail: glpcinat@ix.netcom.com The Gay and Lesbian Parents Coalition International is an international coalition of Gay Fathers, Lesbian Mothers, and Gay and Lesbian Parenting organizations in eight countries, with over 90 chapters that advocate for the rights of gay men and lesbians to have, raise, nurture and love their biological or adoptive children. GLPCI is a non-profit support and information organization operating throughout the world through our member chapters. Dues range from $25 for an individual member, $10 per chapter member with a minimum of $50, to $100 for a cooperating organization. The organization was founded in the United States in 1979 and has grown steadily ever since. The purpose of our member chapters are to provide support to gay fathers and lesbian mothers in their dual roles as parents, in a world that assumes that all parents are heterosexual, and as gay men or lesbians, who must face discrimination in their daily lives, based solely on their sexual orientation. RESOURCES FOR SAME-SEX COUPLES: Thousands of Internet users have already visited the one-month-old Home Page established by Partners Task Force for Gay & Lesbian Couples. Dedicated to the needs of same-sex couples, the partners site has a wide variety of free information, such as resource lists and advice on handling a partner's medical emergency. Recently placed on the Web site are sound files from the video "The Right to Marry," a documentary being produced by the Task Force in support of this civil right. The Partners site has more than 40 pages of text and images located at the following address: http://www.eskimo.com/~demian/partners.html Partners can also be contacted at: Partners, Box 9685, Seattle, WA 98109-0685 (206) 935-1206 E-mail: demian@eskimo.com The Task Force also offers a 64-page booklet entitled "Indispensable Guide for Gay & Lesbian Couples," with chapters devoted to validation, family life, getting support, legal precautions, marriage, sex and domestic partnership. The Guide costs $8, or $4.50 per copy for three or more. DE GAY KRANT: the Netherlands largest gay newspaper, is now available over the Internet. The World Wide Web address is: http://www.bart.nl/~megatel/gaykrant.html The service includes news in English. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ACTION ALERT Recently, the DC Appellate Court ruled that gays and lesbians can have second-parent adoptions in Washington, D.C. This was a rational ruling that is in the best interest of the children, however, but the fight is not over. Each year Congress must pass an Appropriations bill for Washington, D.C. Expect to see an amendment attached to it that prevents the use of federal funds to implement second-parent adoption or adoptions by gay or lesbian individuals. Since Federal money cannot be separated from District money, this will result in the prevention any gay or lesbian couple from providing a home to an unwanted child. This is the same way that Congress has in the past prevented poor women from receiving abortions in Washington. These amendments cannot be vetoed separately by the President. To keep the District funded, the Appropriations bill usually passes with numerous anti-family, anti-choice amendments. On July 19, Congress voted to attach an amendment to the Appropriations bill which governs the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to prevent federal funds from being used to educate employees about AIDS. I am sure the D.C. Appropriations bill will become a similar anti-gay vehicle. What you should do: Write your Senators and Representatives, asking them to vote against any Appropriations bill provision which takes away Washington, D.C.'s right to set its own adoption policy. Ask your friends and family to do the same (get out your Christmas card list). If you live in Washington, D.C., write your relatives' Senators and Representatives. There is going to be a major battle on this issue. Congress needs to hear from you now. Congress received 100 letters opposed to lifting the ban on gays and lesbians in the military for every letter it received in support of lifting the ban. Start now. Write now. It's important.  --=====================_810223008==_--