ERNIE POOK'S COMEEK: Lynda Barry

(in the City Paper this week)
posted by Eve at 3:37 AM | Link | 0 comments

FROM HERE TO PATERNITY: From the Washington City Paper

Robert Jones is trolling for reluctant fathers at the Hunt Place Health Center in Northeast. A sharp dresser in a black turtleneck sweater and gray herringbone pants, he stands in the waiting room among a few sullen prospects who are eyeing him up. He’s got a stack of fliers in one hand and a big, friendly smile: Jones is the car salesman of social workers. What’ll it take, he wants to know, for him to put you in one of his programs today? ...

And he does it with a nice contribution from the federal government. In October of last year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services doled out $15 million for fatherhood programs in D.C., including $2.5 million to the Healthy Family Thriving Communities Council, the umbrella group that governs Jones’ collaborative and six others like it. Most of the rest—$10 million—went to the District’s Fatherhood Initiative, which distributes funding to dozens of smaller nonprofits.
Out of more than 200 fatherhood grants nationwide, the state of California got the most money, followed by Maryland, home of the National Fatherhood Initiative. Third in line: the District of Columbia.

So why are the feds throwing all this money at D.C.’s dads? In 2004, the latest year for data, more than half (53 percent) of District children lived with families headed by a single woman. Study after study shows children living with single women are more likely to fall into poverty and crime and repeat the cycle.

As a result, fatherhood has become one of the sexier issues in the world of funding, sending agencies all over the city scrambling to beef up existing programs and add new ones aimed at getting more dads involved in their kids’ lives. There’s a small problem, though: finding the fathers.

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posted by Eve at 3:33 AM | Link | 0 comments

DC MAYOR'S "ABSTINENCE" PROCLAMATION CRITICIZED: From the Washington Blade

Local gay and AIDS activists expressed concern about a proclamation issued in Washington last week by Mayor Adrian Fenty that calls for educating young people about “abstinence from sex before marriage.”

In a proclamation declaring March 10-17 Abstinence Awareness Week in the District of Columbia, Fenty said the aim of the campaign was to “increase awareness that abstinence from sex outside of marriage is a desirable choice for individuals to make.” ...

Officials with the local groups Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance and Metro Teen AIDS said they did not object to promoting abstinence among teenagers as one of several options for preventing AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases. But spokespersons for the two groups said a mayoral proclamation calling for abstinence until marriage was disparaging to gay and lesbian teens and adults because marriage is not a legal option for same-sex couples in this area.

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posted by Eve at 3:28 AM | Link | 0 comments

The Ick Factor in Incest

Is incest really so bad? Bioethicists wonder.
posted by maggie at 4:59 PM | Link | 1 comments

"A New Wave of German Anti-Feminism"

Or at any rate, that's how Der Spiegel characterizes some resistance from stay-at-home moms.
posted by maggie at 8:48 AM | Link | 0 comments

L.A. GETS FIRST FERTILITY PROGRAM DEDICATED TO GAY MEN: From Pink News (UK)

A Los Angeles fertility clinic has launched the world's first programme dedicated to male couples wishing to become biological parents.

While other centres have made headway into providing gay couples with biological children, The Fertility Institute is the first with a comprehensive programme covering each stage of the process. This includes psychological, legal, medical and surrogate issues, as well as care for both donor and patient.

Demand for surrogate mothers has risen dramatically, due mostly to the difficulties of adopting as a gay couple in the US. ...

70 couples have been treated so far, 40% of them from the US and the rest from Germany, China, Canada, Italy, Brazil, South Africa and the UK. ...

Three quarters of gay couples using the clinic are now also opting to select their child's sex, with 60 percent of them choosing a boy.

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posted by Eve at 6:45 PM | Link | 6 comments

Ending the "Homemaker Penalty" in Ireland

The new and interesting young Iona Institute out of Ireland has just published a report by a Labor politician with the inviting title of "Tax Individualization" which urges rethinking Ireland's move to an individaul tax policy (i.e. one that refuses to take marriage into account in determining tax rates). This is sometimes described by economistic types as "tax neutrality" but since marriage IS a real economic partnership, other econ minds recognize that taxing married individuals as if they were single is not neutral, nor just. BTW, in the 90s it was Republicans who advocated for some version of this policy under the guise of reducing the "marriage penalty."
posted by maggie at 10:17 AM | Link | 0 comments

New Book: The Future of Marriage

David Blankenhorn's new book is here. Anyone read it yet? Links to blogs discussing it welcomed. The March 14 USA Today profile is below:

"David Blankenhorn may be best known as an advocate for the importance of fathers, but the 51-year-old think-tank founder and author is about to step onto the firing line with a much more controversial issue: gay marriage.

The Harvard-educated Mississippi native is a former VISTA volunteer and community organizer who has made a career of thinking about big issues and telling others what he believes. He's written scores of op-ed pieces and essays, co-edited eight books and written two: the 1995 Fatherless America, which attributes many of society's ills to the lack of involvement of fathers in children's lives, and now, The Future of Marriage. In it, he argues kids need both a mother and a father, and because same-sex marriage can't provide that, it's bad for society and kids.

"We're either going to go in the direction of viewing marriage as a purely private relationship between two people that's defined by those people, or we're going to try to strengthen and maintain marriage as our society's most pro-child institution," he says.

He may sound like a conservative Christian, but Blankenhorn says he's a liberal Democrat. . ."

posted by maggie at 10:11 AM | Link | 3 comments

Colorado Adoption Bill

A Brangelina bill out Colorado. I don't know about gay couples, but any couples who is ABLE to marry and chooses not to shouldn't be jointly adopting children.
posted by maggie at 10:06 AM | Link | 7 comments

New York Out-of-State Marriage Recognition Case

In June 2006 the County Executive of Westchester County, New York issued an executive order requiring all county departments to recognize same-sex marriages contracted outside of New York. A group of taxpayers challenged the decision as illegal and beyond the power of the executive. On Monday, a trial court agreed with the County Executive.

The decision notes that New York typically recognizes marriages contracted out-of-state even if they would have been invalid if contracted in state. The court concluded that nothing in New York law makes same-sex marriages void (as opposed to merely invalid), so they could be recognized by New York governmental entities. The decision notes two decisions to the contrary in other state trial courts.

The court also held the executive order not to be a law, but rather an “policy implementation device” so its issuance did not exceed the authority of a local government.
posted by William Duncan at 3:52 PM | Link | 3 comments

USA TODAY PROFILE OF DAVID BLANKENHORN

David Blankenhorn may be best known as an advocate for the importance of fathers, but the 51-year-old think-tank founder and author is about to step onto the firing line with a much more controversial issue: gay marriage.

The Harvard-educated Mississippi native is a former VISTA volunteer and community organizer who has made a career of thinking about big issues and telling others what he believes. He's written scores of op-ed pieces and essays, co-edited eight books and written two: the 1995 Fatherless America, which attributes many of society's ills to the lack of involvement of fathers in children's lives, and now, The Future of Marriage. In it, he argues kids need both a mother and a father, and because same-sex marriage can't provide that, it's bad for society and kids.

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posted by Eve at 2:42 PM | Link | 0 comments

French Marriage Decision

As noted in this news story, France’s Cour de Cassation ruled yesterday in a case involving a challenge to the country’s definition of marriage.

A French mayor had performed a marriage ceremony for a same-sex couple in 2004. That marriage was declared void by the government and France’s interior minister suspended the mayor for one month. Lower courts agreed that the marriage was invalid and yesterday’s decision (here, in French) also held the marriage void.

My French is very shaky (and online translations are not much help), but it appears the couple had alleged that failure to recognize their marriage was a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court held that French law recognizes marriage as the union of a man and a woman and European law has not been construed to affect that law.
posted by William Duncan at 2:23 PM | Link | 3 comments

Mass Episcopal Priest: No New Weddings

Until his church recognizes gay marriages, too. Story here.
posted by maggie at 3:46 PM | Link | 6 comments

McGreevey Seeks Sole Custody of Daughter, 5

McGreevey seeks sole custody of 5-year-old daughter
Former governor's amended divorce lawsuit also asks for child support
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
BY JOSH MARGOLIN
Star-Ledger Staff

Former Gov. James E. McGreevey has revised his divorce lawsuit against his estranged wife and is now seeking sole custody of the couple's 5-year-old daughter -- and child support.

The new documents make no mention of a "matrimonial settlement agreement" that McGreevey's original divorce filing said had resolved all issues of custody and support.

McGreevey, who resigned as governor after announcing he had had an affair with a male aide, has retained a new lawyer and filed the revised papers with the Superior Court in Elizabeth on Feb. 20.

In a brief interview yesterday, McGreevey declined to discuss the particulars of his case or why he should be granted full custody of daughter Jacqueline. He said only: "It's a private family matter and I know we both want what's in the best interest for our daughter."

Contacted by cell phone yesterday, Dina Matos McGreevey hung up without answering questions.

Last month, after McGreevey originally filed for divorce, Matos McGreevey issued a statement disputing his claim that they had reached a settlement. "We continue to have profound differences about what our daughter should be exposed to, and until they are resolved, there will be no agreement," the statement said.

The revised lawsuit filed by attorney Matthew Piermatti asks a judge to grant custody of Jacqueline to the former governor and grant visitation rights to the former first lady. It seeks child support from Matos McGreevey, leaving it to the judge to decide the amount.



Matos McGreevey, 40, lives in Springfield with the couple's daughter. She is executive director of the Columbus Hospital Foundation, earning about $82,000 a year.

McGreevey, 49, lives in a mansion in Plainfield with his partner, Australian-born financier Mark O'Donnell.

Since resigning as governor, McGreevey had a brief stint with Lesniak's law firm, went on a national publicity tour for his memoir, "The Confession," and most recently served as a volunteer consultant to Kean University on a deal to open a campus in China.

Matos McGreevey has largely been silent since her husband's resignation. The former first lady is penning her own account -- "Silent Partner" -- due out in May.

The former governor has said he and O'Donnell plan to enter into a civil union after the divorce is finalized.

John Eory, a partner at the law firm Stark & Stark in Lawrenceville and an instructor in divorce law, said that if McGreevey continues to push for full custody, the judge likely will ask for detailed parenting plans from both parties.

"If he's claiming he's better fit to be entrusted with the residential care of his child, I'm presuming he's prepared to go to the mat to do that," Eory said. He said McGreevey might argue that he can provide a "stable nuclear two-parent household ... (and) offer benefits to the child that she can't get in a single-parent home."

posted by maggie at 2:41 PM | Link | 3 comments

NJ "Family Diversity" Video Update

"Gay parents video to be reviewed in Evesham
Monday, March 12, 2007
By MATT KATZ
NJ Courier-Post Staff

The district is set to announce today that it has formed a committee that will make a recommendation about a controversial video featuring gay parents, but committee members' names will remain secret to protect them from harassment. . ."

posted by maggie at 10:43 PM | Link | 3 comments

DAVID QUINN INTERVIEW IN ZENIT

A new think tank in Ireland is making the case that marriage and religious practice are vital contributors to a healthy, well-functioning civil society.

The Iona Institute for Religion and Society, directed by religious and social affairs commentator David Quinn, was launched last month to disseminate evidence-based research in favor of the importance of strong families and religious values in Irish society.

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posted by Eve at 6:23 PM | Link | 0 comments

Massachusetts' Justice Sosman, Rest in Peace

"Justice Sosman of the SJC dies at 56
Opposed legalizing same-sex marriage
By David Abel, Globe Staff | March 12, 2007

Justice Martha B. Sosman of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, whose 2000 appointment gave the state's highest court its first female majority, died Saturday of respiratory failure, court officials said. The 56-year-old jurist had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005.

Justice Sosman, a former board member of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and a founding partner of an all-female law firm in Boston, surprised some in the legal community by joining two other justices in dissent against the landmark 2003 decision legalizing same-sex marriage. She wrote that the majority opinion "merely repeats the impassioned rhetoric" of same-sex marriage advocates.

"A quick review of the résumé makes people leap to various conclusions about me," she told the Globe three years ago. "The five-woman firm, the involvement with Planned Parenthood, I think added to this image that I was going to be this crusading feminist liberal whatnot, which is certainly not what I am."

In a telephone interview, Margaret H. Marshall, chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, described Justice Sosman as "a jurist's jurist." . . ."

posted by maggie at 3:41 PM | Link | 0 comments

REVIEW OF ANDREW KOPPELMAN'S SAME SEX, DIFFERENT STATES: WHEN SAME-SEX MARRIAGES CROSS STATE LINES

by me, here.
posted by Eve at 5:03 PM | Link | 1 comments