Date: Mon, 7 Oct 1996 02:50:27 -0700 From: Jim Fagelson Subject: Parents' Network July - September Issue ** THE PARENT'S NETWORK ** Volume 2.3 Summer 1996 The PARENT'S NETWORK, a bimonthly service of the GAY AND LESBIAN PARENTS COALITION INTERNATIONAL (GLPCI), highlights information of interest to lesbian mothers, gay fathers, their partners, children, future parents and persons who are supportive of gay and lesbian parenting. The Gay and Lesbian Parents Coalition International, founded in the United States in 1979, is an international coalition of Gay Fathers, Lesbian Mothers, and Gay and Lesbian Parenting organizations in nine countries, with more than 100 chapters that advocate for the rights of gay men and lesbians to have, raise, nurture and love their biological or adoptive children. Dues range from $25 for an individual member, $10 per chapter member with a minimum of $50, to $100 for a cooperating organization. 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 the PARENT'S NETWORK, 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 Special Report from the American Bar Association Resources for Lesbian, gay and Bisexual parents Interesting Web sites We appreciate your interest in GLPCI. Jim Fagelson Vice President ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IS THERE A GAY AND LESBIAN PARENTS ORGANIZATION IN YOUR AREA? Lesbian mothers, gay fathers and bisexual parents 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 you 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 NATIONAL PROTECTIONS FOR LESBIANS AND GAY MEN Gays and lesbians are protected from discrimination nationwide in only nine countries, according to a new report from the International Lesbian and Gay Association. The countries are Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Spain and Sweden. South Africa is the only country where discrimination based on sexual orientration is prohibited in the Constitution. AND OTHER NATIONAL RECOGNITION Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden allow gays and lesbians to immigrate to be with a citizen of that nation who is their lover, according to the International Lesbian and Gay Association. In addition, Canada and the United Kingdom permit such immigration on a case-by-case basis. ILGA also reported that 11 countries officially welcome gays and lesbians in their militaries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden. AUSTRALIA (Wockner News Service) - Australia's Aug. 6 National Census of Population and Housing, for the first time, recognized cohabitating gay/lesbian couples as such, reported the gay newspaper Brother Sister. They were previously considered to be unrelated adults sharing a household. BRAZIL (Wockner News Service) - Brazil's gay-partnership legislation has moved to a special parliamentary commission. The measure, authored by Workers Party Deputy Marta Suplicy, would grant registered gay couples spousal rights in areas such as inheritance, social security, pensions and immigration. CANADA (Wockner News Service) - Canada's federal government will pay medical and dental benefits -- but not pensions -- to same-sex partners of public servants, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported July 18. Such servants include Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers, members of the military, federal workers, and employees of federally regulated entities, such as airlines, trains, broadcasters and banks. The new policy resulted from a human-rights tribunal ruling that the government was discriminating based on sexual orientation. The benefits will be retroactive to the day of the ruling, June 13. DENMARK (Wockner News Service) - Denmark, which in 1989 became the first country to legalize marriage-like registered partnership for gays, banned discrimination based on sexual orientation by private employers. Discrimination in other arenas has been prohibited for years. The parliament, the Folketing, passed the law May 24 without discussion or controversy. It took effect July 1. ENGLAND (Wockner News Service) - An industrial tribunal in Southampton, England, ruled in early August that a gay-rights case before it was so important that it needed to be sent to the European Courts rather than decided locally, reported London's The Pink Paper. Plaintiff Lisa Grant is suing her employer, British Rail, for equal partnership benefits. A European ruling could apply to all British employers. FINLAND (Wockner News Service) - Finland's plan to legalize gay registered partnerships saw introduction in Parliament May 28. The bill is sponsored by MPs from the Left-Wing Alliance, Greens, Swedish People's Party, Social Democrats, National Coalition Party and Social Democrats. Like statutes in Denmark/Greenland, Sweden and Norway, the measure grants gay couples all the rights of marriage except access to adoption, church weddings and artificial-conception services. On May 29, Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen, in an unusual move, signed onto the bill, emphasizing the clear standing of the ministers in support of the bill. FRANCE (Wockner News Service) - In June, gay couples who live together will receive the same 25 percent discount that heterosexual couples get on the French state railway, SNCF, however, they must have a domestic-partnership certificate from their city hall. Only 270 of France's 36,000 municipalities register gay couples. But eight million of France's 58 million citizens live in those municipalities. HUNGARY (Wockner News Service) - Hungary legalized common-law gay marriage May 21. Gay couples who live together and have sex will have all the rights of heterosexual spouses -- including inheritance and pensions -- but will not be allowed to adopt children. Parliament voted 207-73 in favor of the change. A March 1995 Constitutional Court declared, "It is arbitrary and contrary to human dignity ... that the law withholds recognition from couples living in an economic and emotional union simply because they are same-sex." At the same time, the court ruled that formal marriage is for heterosexual couples only. ICELAND (Reuters) - Gay marriages were given the official stamp of approval in Iceland on June 27 with the remote, North Atlantic outpost becoming the fourth nation in Europe to legalise homosexual unions. As the rest of the world celebrated International Gay Pride Day, Iceland's Althing (parliament) passed a Bill on Homosexual Marriages granting gays the right to marry in a civil ceremony. Iceland, whose population of 265,000 is ruled by a moderate conservative government, follows in the wake of Denmark (1989), Norway (1993) and Sweden (1995) in legalising gay marriages. The law does not give gays the right to have church weddings, to adopt children or to have children by artificial insemination. It does, however, go further than laws in any other country in that if one partner in a gay marriage already has a child, the other can have shared custody of that child. NEW ZEALAND (Wockner News Service) - The three New Zealand lesbian couples who sued for the right to marry lost their case May 28. At least one of the couples will appeal. Auckland High Court Justice Kerr ruled that legalization of gay marriage should be pursued via Parliament not through the courts, in part because public support for the idea is hard to gauge. "To give marriage a meaning which the plaintiffs seek would require me to interpret the law in a way which I do not perceive Parliament to intend," Kerr wrote. "Community attitudes in 1996 are much more relaxed to gay and lesbian couples ... but whether that relaxation would extend to supporting marriage of such couples is difficult to gauge." SLOVENIA (Wockner News Service) -Slovenia's new penal code bans discrimination and special rights based on sexual orientation with punishment of fines or imprisonment of up to a year, the end of May. While activists wanted protection in Slovenia's constitution, they said "[It's] better than nothing," Only one nation, South Africa, protects gays constitutionally. SPAIN (Wockner News Service) - The Catalonia Superior Justice Tribunal in Barcelona ruled the end of July that a Colombian gay man whose lover is Spanish has a right to seek residency in Spain. "This is an important symbolic advance for the recognition of the rights of gay couples, making obvious the need for promulgation of a law on de-facto partnerships," said Gemma Sanchez, secretary general of the Coordinadora Gai-Lesbiana. "The lack of a law of this type requires gays and lesbians to battle continuously to obtain their rights." SOUTH AFRICA (Wockner News Service) - South African Airways said the end of July that gay couples are welcome to take advantage of its new promotion, which states, "Next time your husband files first class to South Africa, you can fly too, for free." "The offer applies to any couple, married, common-law or same-sex," said the airline's United Kingdom marketing head. Company spokesman Steve Dunne added, "We are anxious to uphold equal opps. Many of our employees are gay after all." SWEDEN (Wockner News Service) - "There are no acts of love between adults that one can or should condemn," the Dalai Lama reportedly told a gay artist May 24 in Stockholm, Sweden. The Dalai Lama was speaking to artist Richard Wolff, who, during a performance staged in honor of the Dalai Lama's visit, had complained, "I was not aware when I accepted this performance that Buddhism condemns gays." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS FROM THE UNITED STATES CALIFORNIA - Gay and lesbian representatives sharply clashed with the religious right in September during hearings on Gov. Wilson (R) administration's proposal to prevent adoptions by unmarried couples. The Governor seeks to strengthen the existing policy against any legal challenge. Janice Ploeger Glaab, chief of public affairs for the state Health and Welfare Agency, denies the effort is politically motivated and added that the policy is designed to prevent unmarried couples, whether heterosexual or homosexual, from adopting. If approved by the agency--of which the Department of Social Services is part--the proposals would take effect in October 1997. CALIFORNIA (The Daily News) - The Los Angeles Board of Education on July 1 elected Jeff Horton as its new president, marking the first time an openly gay member has been chosen to hold the post. Horton, 48, is best known for establishing programs and policies to protect disadvantaged students - in particular homosexual students, teen-age mothers and minorities. He has taken considerable criticism for those stands from some parents. Horton's sexual orientation did not become publicly known until after he first was elected as a school board member in 1991. He made it a matter of public record during National Coming Out Day that same year. But that revelation did not affect his popularity in his district. Both times he ran for the school board, he received approximately 60 percent of the vote. COLORADO (USA Today) - In June, the Colorado Court of Appeals rejected a lesbian couple's petition to adopt each other's child. The court agreed with a lower court ruling that the kids can't be adopted because the women are not married to each other, and because each wants to retain parental rights over her biological child. COLORADO Boulder became the first city in the state and the region to create a domestic partnership registry that allows unmarried couples, whether gay or heterosexual, to publicly declare their commitment and their living arragements. The registry is open to all interested couples who sign an affidavit swearing they are involved in a committed relationship, are not related by blood, share a home and are both at least 18. The Boulder City Council unanimously approved the registry in May. FLORIDA (AP) - An appeals court ruled August 30 against a lesbian mother trying to regain custody of her daughter from her ex-husband, a man who murdered his first wife. Florida's 1st District Court of Appeal said a judge who removed 12-year-old Cassey Ward from her mother a year ago based his decision on the child's best interests - not Mary Ward's sexual orientation. The appeals court said Circuit Judge Joseph Tarbuck had enough evidence that living with her mother was detrimental to Cassey. Cassey lived with her mother until last summer, when Tarbuck revoked her mother's custody, saying he wanted to give Cassey a chance to live in ``a non-lesbian world.'' Charlene Carres, a lawyer for Mary Ward, said she was disappointed in the ruling and said the decision would be appealed, probably to the state Supreme Court. FLORIDA (AP) - After the Southern Baptists condemned Disney studios as being against families, Michael Eisner, Disney's chairman and chief executive officer, said a threatened boycott of Disney initiated by members of the Southern Baptist Convention was the work of ''a very small group'' whose views do not represent those of most Americans. ''The Southern Baptists took a very extreme position, which we feel is foolish,'' said Eisner, whose comments were published June 24th by the Los Angeles Daily News. ''They seem to have been off on a tangent this year.'' Meeting in New Orleans in early June, Southern Baptists voted overwhelmingly to boycott Disney products if the company did not reverse its ''anti-Christian and anti-family trend'' within 12 months. The lengthy resolution listed complaints, including Disney's extending health benefits to the partners of homosexual employees, allowing ''Gay Days'' at Disney World and distributing objectionable films and books through subsidiaries. ILLINOIS - In a landmark case that could improve the lives of lesbians and gay men in the nation's schools, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the end of July in favor of a young gay man who sued his former Wisconsin school for failing to protect him from constant, at times brutal, anti-gay assaults and harassment while he was a student. The appeal, Nabozny v. Podlesny, was brought by Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and is the first of its kind to challenge anti-gay violence in the nation's schools. The decision reversed a lower court's ruling throwing the case out and remanded it to the federal district court in Madison, Wisconsin for trial. INDIANA (AP) - The Unitarian Universalist Church, which has long supported gay rights, adopted a resolution June 25th urging legal recognition of same-sex marriages. "We recognize and affirm that love is love, and family is family, that every couple needs encouragement from the community to make their marriage last,'' said the Rev. John Buehrens, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, which voted on the resolution at its annual meeting. The Boston-based church, with more than 1,040 congregations and 205,000 members, has a history of support for gay rights. OHIO (AP) - A Stark County judge is considering the placement of a youth in a foster home shared by two women believed to be lesbians. The women and child have not been identified. Stark County's Department of Human Services officials have told the court they are reasonably sure the women are lesbians. Human Services Director Donald Pond said state law prevents discrimination against homosexual foster parents. The case will also pit the judge's authority to oversee a child's welfare against DHS autonomy in licensing and approving foster parents. Family Court Judge David Stucki is against gay and lesbian foster homes and is willing to "go to war" against DHS over the matter. "I have a right to know where the children from my court are being placed," Stucki said. "I'm reserving the right to discriminate on anything that goes against a child's best interests." A DHS 1991 directive recognizes "co-parents" as any two related or unrelated adults sharing parental responsibilities in a home. In 1990, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that a Licking County man who was homosexual was allowed to adopt an 8-year-old handicapped boy over the objection of local Human Services officials. The high court said that the adoption was in the child's best interests even though the man did not fit the typical adoptive-parent profile. PENNSYLVANIA (AP) - The end of June, Mayor Edward G. Rendell of Philadelphia issued an order granting health and family-leave benefits to the partners of some gay city workers. Rendell has incurred the wrath of black clergy, Catholics and the City Council president. The religious and political leaders denounced the order saying it threatened the ``traditional family'' and endorsed homosexuality. A mail-in campaign started by Catholic churches landed roughly 700 mass-produced postcards on the mayor's desk. A spokeswoman for Rendell says the Democrat won't change his mind. PENNSYLVANIA (AP) - The Pennsylvania state Supreme Court announced September 20 its decision to allow a lesbian co-parent standing to seek shared custody of her ex-lover's biological child. The 3-judge panel broke new ground in the state's recognition of lesbian and gay households as it overturned a family court judge's ruling that the co-parent known as "JAL" lacked legal standing in the matter. JAL and EPH met in 1980, became roommates in 1982, purchased a house together in 1988, and chose a donor together to set out on a course of artificial insemination in 1989 to impregnate EPH. They had an attorney draw up papers in which it was stated that they had decided together to have the child and to raise the child jointly. EPH named JAL the child's guardian and chose JAL's last name as the child's middle name. These actions satisfied the state Supreme Court that JAL and the girl were "co-members of a non-traditional family." WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) The Senate passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) by a vote of 81-17 in September. The bill originally sponsored by Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.). The House passed the Defense of Marriage Act 342-67 in July. The Defense of Marriage Act, introduced in the Senate by Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.), gives states the authority to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. Conservatives have said the bill is needed because a gay-rights lawsuit could lead Hawaii to become the first to legalize GAY marriages and force other states to recognize same-sex marriages performed there. WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) - Despite the campaign on Capitol Hill to outlaw federal recognition of gay marriage, Congress gave some official acknowledgment to the companions of three gay members. The partners of Reps. Gerry Studds (D-MA), Barney Frank (D-MA), and Steve Gunderson (R-WI), all have congressional spouse identification cards, said the July issue of Washingtonian magazine. The cards allow the men to park in Capitol Hill garages and move freely in and out of restricted areas in the Capitol, even when security is heightened for events like the State of the Union address. SPECIAL RIGHTS FOR HETROSEXUALS? When gays and lesbians are allowed to be married, between 170 to 250 Federal (and State) rights currently denied to same-sex couples would be allowed. These include: Automatic Inheritance; Bereavement Leave; Burial Determination; Child Custody, Crime Victims Recovery Benefits; Divorce Protections; Domestic Violence Protections; Exemption from Property Tax on Partner's Death; Immigration Rights for Foreign Spouse; Immunity from Testifying Against A Spouse; Insurance Breaks; Joint Adoption and Foster Care; Joint Parenting (Insurance Coverage, School Records); Medical Decisions on Behalf of Partner; Various Property Rights; Reduced Rate Memberships; Sick Leave to Care for Partner; Social Security Survivor Benefits; Tax Breaks; Visitation of Partner in Hospital or Prison; Wrongful Death Benefits; etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SPECIAL REPORT - AMERICAN BAR ASSOICATION JOURNAL July, 1996 A MATTER OF FULL FAITH Legislators Scramble to Bar Recognition of Gay Marriages By Henry J. Reske Driven by the fear that Hawaii courts may soon legitimize same-sex marriages, legislators in more than 30 states and in Congress have introduced legislation to ensure the states will not have to recognize such unions. Dubbed the "Defense of Marriage Act," the federal legislation has gotten the support of President Clinton. It specifies that states are not required to give effect to same-sex unions and bars federal benefits associated with marriage to such couples. At the state level, at least 10 bills prohibiting recognition of gay marriages already have been adopted. The remarkable rush to ban same-sex marriages is setting the stage for what could be a major legal and cultural crisis involving such things as the definition of family and conflicting state laws. BENEFITS BATTLEGROUND What worries legislators is that gay couples who travel to Hawaii to marry will seek benefits associated with marriage in their states, such as community property rights. Whether such marriages will be recognized will most likely be settled by courts and will involve the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution and the conflict-of-laws doctrine. Under current case law, courts consider public policy in deciding whether to apply the laws of a sister state and in interpreting the clause. Thus, judges may refuse to recognize the Hawaiian marriages based on public policy of the forum state. That would suit Jay Sekulow just fine. He is chief counsel for the conservative American Center for Law and Justice, which has tried to intervene in the Hawaii case on behalf of eight legislators there who are opposed to same-sex marriages. "There are lines in the sand that we have to draw as a people," says Sekulow, who believes that legitimizing such unions would diminish the special status of marriage in our culture. "It's not just a slippery slope but a downhill nosedive into the abyss, and I don't know if we would ever get out of it," he says. However, Dan Foley, lead counsel in the case, says racial desegregation wrought a far bigger change in society, forcing people to live, work and go to school together. Same-sex marriage, he maintains, would merely recognize what already exists. "This would not force anyone to do anything or be with anyone," he says. "Once we have the experience it's going to be a big yawn." The opposite views of Sekulow and Foley perhaps best illustrate not only the debate over same- sex marriages but the current status of homosexual rights. Despite gains, there are still major cultural, societal and legal bars to full acceptance of homosexuality. Major religious groups oppose it, the military still bars openly gay members, and courts have refused to extend various rights to gays and lesbians. On the other hand, gays and lesbians have made great strides. One significant victory was the U.S. Supreme Court's May 20 decision, Romer v.Evans, No. 94-1039, striking down a provision of Colorado's Constitution prohibiting laws that protect homosexuals from discrimination. In addition, some major corporations and municipalities have enacted domestic partnership rules to extend health and other benefits to same-sex couples. San Francisco, for example, has allowed couples to register as "domestic partners" since 1991. Recently the city hosted a "domestic partnership ceremony" for nearly 200 gay couples. COURT AS CATALYST The catalyst for the gay-marriage debate is the Hawaii Supreme Court's ruling in Baehr v. Lewin, 852 P.2d 44. The court in its May 1993 decision held that barring same-sex couples from marrying may violate the equal protection clause of the Hawaii Constitution, which is more expansive than its federal counterpart. The court said the statute is unconstitutional unless its sex-based classification is shown on remand to be justified by compelling state interests. Since the case rests on state law, there can be no appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Foley says the first federal case probably will concern whether states have to recognize same-sex marriages from Hawaii under Article IV's full faith and credit clause of the Constitution. It generally requires states to honor each other's "public acts, records and judicial proceedings." The clause has become a "weak constitutional doctrine" under Supreme Court jurisprudence, wrote Deborah Henson in a law review article about its limitations (32 U. Louisville J. Fam. L. 551). A state is not required to honor another's law if it would violate a substantial public policy, she writes, an exception that often has swallowed up the general rule favoring validation of marriage. Indeed, courts in older cases have cited the exception, Henson writes, in refusing to recognize marriages in which spouses were close relatives, were considered still married to others or were of different racial backgrounds. Stanford N. Katz, a family law professor at the Boston College Law School and a former chair of the ABA Family Law Section, cautions that there must be "a very strong policy reason to deny recognition under full faith and credit." Similarly, public policy is a consideration in a choice-of -laws context. "It is rare that a forum does not recognize another's judgment or decree," he adds. "Mostly, where full faith and credit does not recognize a judgment or decree is in a situation where a court rendering the initial decree or judgment lacked power to do it." States passing laws opposing same-sex marriages are laying the groundwork for making such a public policy argument, Katz says. The federal legislation, on the other hand, is based on Congress' power to say what effect one state's acts, records and judicial proceedings have in another, says its Senate sponsor, Sen. Don Nickles, R Okla. The bill also defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman in an attempt to deny to same-sex couples federal benefits available to their heterosexual counterparts, such as federal employee benefits, according to a statement released by Nickles. Evan Wolfson, director of the Marriage Project of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc., a gay rights organization, claims the state measures are unconstitutional. He cites as precedent two Supreme Court cases holding that divorces in one state must be honored in others, Williams v. North Carolina, 325 U.S. 226 (1945), and Cook v. Cook, 342 U.S. 126 (1951). "How can it be that divorce is honored throughout the country and marriage is not?" he asks. If states refuse to recognize same-sex marriages, he says, it will create a legal and practical mess not just for couples but also for their children, employers, creditors and others interacting with them. Indeed, it is the benefits that many gay couples are seeking, says Jeffrey G. Gibson, chair of the Rights of Lesbians and Gay Men Committee of the ABA Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section. "It's not so much that people of the same gender want to walk down the aisle of a Southern Baptist church," he says, "but that they want the same rights that government can provide to a [heterosexual] couple." Gibson, who says the ABA has not taken a position on the issue, predicts that the constitutionality of anti-gay marriage laws will be litigated in the states for 10 to 15 years. He compared the battle to that of Loving v. Virginia, 18 L.Ed. 2d 1967, which struck down laws banning interracial marriages as violating the equal protection clause. The suit was brought by an interracial couple who married in the District of Columbia in 1958 and moved to Virginia, where they were convicted of violating laws banning such marriages. At the time some 16 states still enforced such laws. Those opposed to same-sex unions eschew such comparisons. Sekulow says there is a clear distinction between Loving, which dealt with racially discriminatory laws, and a law that would grant protection based on sexual practices. He says allowing gay marriages would "leave no boundaries," and open the possibility of multiple partner marriages. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RESOURCES FOR THE LESBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL PARENTS VIDEO: A 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 training 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. VIDEO: "It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School" A New Film by Debra Chasnoff and Helen Cohen. "School boards across the country have been banning discussion of lesbian and gay people in the classroom based on misinformation from anti-gay activists," said San Francisco Board of Education President Steve Phillips. "This film puts a human face on classroom discussions that are crucial to preparing our children for the diverse communities of the 1990s." GLPCI consulted during the filming of the video. "It's Elementary" was shot in six public and private schools around the country. "It's Elementary" is Debra Chasnoff's first film since "Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and our Environment", for which she won a 1992 Academy Award. The documentary explores what happens when teachers find creative, appropriate ways to confront anti-gay prejudice and counter gay invisibility in their classrooms. EXHIBIT: "Love Makes a Family: Living in Lesbian and Gay Families," includes 20 photographs by Gigi Kaeser of Amherst with text based on interviews conducted by Pam Brown of Amherst and Peggy Gillespie of Belchertown. (Six copies of the exhibit are currently traveling around to universities, churches, synagogues, public libraries, community centers and schools around the United States). Contact FamPhoto@aol.com for more information. COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) will be coordinating the San Francisco Bay Area tour of the photo-text exhibit "Love Makes a Family" from June 5-November 30, 1996. For information on bringing this exhibit to a Bay Area location near you, contact Denise Connett at COLAGE, 415-861-5437. VIDEO: "Weird and Wacky? Families Trying to Understand Homosexuality" is a 36-minute educational video by the Toledo-PFLAG chapter that takes an intimate look at a lesbian couple's two extended families as they work through various stages of the acceptance process. Using humor, music, old family film footage, and tech effects, the video confronts in a non-threatening way some of the common misconceptions some people have, and presents lesbians and gays as normal, hard working people who make important contributions to our society. By showing gays and lesbians within the family context, it defies the lie of the Far Right which falsely claims that homosexuals are a threat to the Family. PUBLICATIONS: The American Psychological Association has published a booklet entitled "Lesbian and Gay Parenting: A Resource for Psychologists." It is available free of charge. Call (202) 336-6050 or E-mail publicinterest@apa.org to receive a copy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERESTING WEB SITES GAY AND LESBIAN PARENTS COALITION INTERNATIONAL: The web site offers numerous resources including: statistics on gay and lesbian parents, a bibliography of resources, extensive information on the organization, information on Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE) and links too 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 Phone: (201) 783-6204 E-mail: glpcinat@ix.netcom.com PFLAG has officially launched homepage at: http://www.pflag.org PFLAG's home page offers complete chapter information for any state in the country as well as information about international affiliates. IRISH WEB SITE: http://qrd.rdrop.com:80/qrd/www/world/europe/ireland/ LATVIA WEB SITE: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/parade/gf96 ILGA-Portugal WEB SITE http://www.ilga-portugal.org/ WEST HOLLYWOOD PARTNER REGISTRATION - Gays anywhere in the world who wish to register their domestic partnership with the city of West Hollywood, Calif., may now do so via the Internet. The service is also available via regular "snail mail." The World Wide Web URL is http://www.ci.west-hollywood.ca.us/cityhall/ SCHOOLS LIST: To subscribe send mail to: listproc@critpath.org with the words (minus the quotation marks) "subscribe schools" BISEXUAL/STRAIGHT SPOUSE SUPPORT LISTS: To subscribe send mail to: majordomo@texsys.com The first (not subject) line of the message should be "subscribe spouse-support". LESBIAN MOMS LIST: To subscribe send mail to: majordomo@qiclab.scn.rain.com The first (not subject) line of the message should be "subscribe lesbian moms". GAYDADS LIST: To subscribe send mail to: majordomo@vector.casti.com The first (not subject) line of the message should be "subscribe gaydads". --=====================_844692357==_--