GAY EXPECTATIONS MAKE FOR COMPLEX RELATIONSHIPS: Review of book by Jennifer Baumgarden

...Baumgardner explores the idea that bisexuality liberates women to have "gay expectations" even if they end up married to the man, in her new book Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics (February, FSG). Having "gay expectations," as she explains, produces more intimacy, more intensity, and less compromise for women, regardless of whether their beau of the moment is a Jane or a John.

lots more
posted by Eve at 2:58 PM | Link | 7 comments

ENGLISH LESBIAN IN CIVIL PARTNERSHIP CHARGED WITH BIGAMY: From the BBC

A woman has appeared in court accused of going through a civil partnership ceremony with her lesbian partner while still being married to a man.

Suzanne Mitchell, 29, of Wingfield Gardens, Shrewsbury, appeared before the town's magistrates on Thursday.

The mother-of-three denied making a false statement to a registrar when she married Caroline Beddowes in a civil partnership ceremony last February.

The case was referred to the crown court and Mrs Mitchell was given bail.

link
posted by Eve at 2:53 PM | Link | 6 comments

New Study: Should Single Parents Stay That Way?

New study by Cherlin and Formby "Family Instability and Child Well-Being" is featured in March 29 USA today, the press release is here. Bottom line: both the number of transitions (marital or cohabiting) and being a single parent had negative effects on child well-being. But single parents who did not move in and out with partners had children with fewer problems.
posted by maggie at 12:18 PM | Link | 1 comments

British Cardinal "Legislating Intolerance"

Thanks for a reader for posting these statements from Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, from Catholic News Service in the comments:

". . ."My fear is that, under the guise of legislating for what is said to be tolerance, we are legislating for intolerance," he said during a March 28 lecture in London a week after the government forced through new gay rights legislation with minimal debate in the House of Commons.

"Once this begins, it is hard to see where it ends," said the cardinal. "My fear is that in an attempt to clear the public square of what are seen as unacceptable intrusions, we weaken the pillars on which that public square is erected, and we will discover that the pillars of pluralism may not survive ... that is why I have sounded this note of alarm."

He said "what looks like liberality is, in reality, a radical exclusion of religion from the public sphere."

The cardinal said that aggressive secularism was accompanied by a cynicism of Christianity "so when Christians stand by their beliefs, they are intolerant dogmatists. When they sin, they are hypocrites.

"When they take the side of the poor, they are soft-headed liberals," he said. "When they seek to defend the family, they are right-wing reactionaries."

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor said that more attacks on the place of religion in public life could be expected in the names of tolerance, equality and diversity.

"For my own part, I have no difficulty in being a proud British Catholic citizen," said Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor. "But now it seems to me we are being asked to accept a different version of our democracy, one in which diversity and equality are held to be at odds with religion.

"We Catholics, and here I am sure I speak, too, for other Christians and all people of faith, do not demand special privileges, but we do demand our rights," the cardinal said. . ."

posted by maggie at 9:57 AM | Link | 0 comments

SUNRISE, SUNSET

a family's faces through the years
posted by Eve at 5:08 PM | Link | 0 comments

New Study: Nature and Nurture in Swedish children

From NBER:

"Anders Bjorklund, Markus Jantti, Gary Solon, Nature and Nurture in the Intergenerational Transmission of Socioeconomic Status: Evidence from Swedish Children and Their Biological and Rearing Parents

Abstract:

. . .Our analysis focuses on children raised in six different family circumstances: raised by both biological parents, raised by the biological mother without a stepfather, raised by the biological mother with a stepfather, raised by the biological father without a stepmother, raised by the biological father with a stepmother, and raised by two adoptive parents. Relative to the existing literature,
the most remarkable feature of our data set is that it contains information on the biological parents even when they are not the rearing parents. We specify a simple additive model of pre-birth (including genetic) and post-birth influences and examine the model's ability to provide a unified account of the intergenerational associations in all six family types. Our results suggest substantial roles for both pre-birth and post-birth factors.

http://papers.nber.org/papers/W12985

posted by maggie at 11:31 AM | Link | 0 comments

More Dale Carpenter on David Blankenhorn

Long thoughtful post by Dale Caprenter on Volokh Conspiracy ending with this thought:

"The point is that both support for and opposition to SSM well up from a variety of complex ideas, fears, hopes, emotions, world-views, motives, and underlying theories. The debate will not be resolved by dueling quotes from marriage radicals. SSM will have the effects it has – good or bad – regardless of what marriage radicals with one or another “cluster” of beliefs hope it will have.

"I should add that I have begun reading Blankenhorn’s book, The Future of Marriage. So far, I find it lively, engaging, subtle, interesting, happily free of jargon, and deeply wrong. It is probably the best single book yet written opposing gay marriage."

posted by maggie at 10:58 AM | Link | 8 comments

SSM Update: Connecticut Hears, NJ Polls

The House held hearings on a bill to create same-sex marriage in Connecticut. I testified. The Hartford Courant's version, here. This story reports on a poll of Hudson County, NJ, where support for gay marriage has dropped sharply. In 2003 55 percent supported gay marriage but now only 42 percent support civil unions:

"Although New Jersey recently enacted legislation allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions, support for gay couples among Hudson County residents is substantially lower than it was in 2003, when the first cases seeking recognition of gay marriage were filed, according to a recent The Jersey Journal/New Jersey City University poll.

The poll shows that 42.2 percent of respondents support civil unions, 29.7 percent oppose them and 28 percent either did not respond or said they were not sure.
But the poll's authors, NJCU Political Science professor Fran Moran and English professor Bruce Chadwick, said that these numbers show that support for same-sex couples has slipped among Hudson County residents, although the numbers "would be a sign of strong support were it not for the earlier polls."

In a poll taken in 2003, before any state or municipality had permitted gay marriages, 55 percent of Hudson respondents supported same-sex marriage, which goes a step further than civil unions by also conferring the title of marriage upon gay couples. . ."

posted by maggie at 10:14 AM | Link | 1 comments

Connecticut SSM Testimony

For the real devotee: warning over 6 hours of Connecticut SSM testimony. (My testimony (point the slider) is at 57:48).
posted by maggie at 9:00 AM | Link | 0 comments

Dale Carpenter on David Blankenhorn

Over at the Volokh Conspiracy here.
posted by maggie at 9:00 AM | Link | 0 comments

Adopting Your Lover: Proof We Need SSM?

The NY Times editorialized on the Watson case that it demonstrates the need for SSM so these kinds of legal convultions don't happen. Well, I guess that's one possible interpretation. Perhaps it shows adoption is forever but marriage is easily gotten out of? I don't know. But Opine editorializes:

". . .The legal dispute at issue in Mr. Watson’s estate is a trust that delivers money to his grandchildren. His immediate family does not inherit under this trust, and neither do their spouses. Only grandchildren & great-grandchildren A common estate arrangement both for tax purposes and to inspire self-sufficiency among ones children. (One knows how Grandma & Grandpa LOVE to spoil their grandchildren while often ignoring their own children.)

The estate plan is meant to deliver these funds to the great-grandchildren of Mr. Watson, his heirs. It does NOT distribute money to the spouses of these great-grandchildren.

One of Mr. Watson’s straight heirs could have done the same thing Olive Watson did; adopt an adult (their spouse, best friend, business partner, etcetera) in an attempt to inherit under the estate. This is called FRAUD, and is a transparent attempt to circumvent the spirit of the estate plan for monetary gain. The lesbianism of the Mr. Watson’s granddaughter has nothing to do with the case & neither do marriage laws. . ."

posted by maggie at 8:59 AM | Link | 0 comments