NIH ON U.S. CHILD WELL-BEING

Compared to national statistics for the previous year, there has been an increase in the percentage of children living with at least one working parent and the percentage of children living in households classified as food insecure has declined. High school students were more likely to have taken advanced academic courses and the percentage of young adults who completed high school has increased. The adolescent birth rate has dropped to a record low.

Increasing were: the percentage of children served by community water systems that did not meet all applicable standards for healthy drinking water, and the percentage of children living in physically inadequate or crowded housing or housing that cost more than 30 percent of household income. The percentage of low birthweight infants also increased, as did the percentage of births to unmarried women. The rate at which youth were perpetrators of serious violent crime increased slightly.

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posted by Eve at 10:08 PM | Link |  

Rome: Locking Up Love

and throwing away the key over an ancient bridge over the Tiber. It reminds me of C.S. Lewis' observation that indissolubility is not a duty imposed on lovers from the outside, it originates deep in the heart of love itself, which then seeks some outward, visible expression. If the ritual is not to be taken from ancient sacraments or texts, then perhaps a recent novel/film will do:

"Rome Journal
In Rome, a New Ritual on an Old Bridge

By IAN FISHER
NYT August 6, 2007

ROME, Aug. 5 — Love, in all its splendor and mess, found a fit expression on Rome’s oldest bridge last year. Inspired by a best-selling book, then the movie version, young couples wrote their names on a padlock. They chained their locks around lampposts on Ponte Milvio. Then they symbolically cut off escape by tossing the keys into the wine-dark Tiber below.

But reality quickly set in, as it often does after passion. Thousands of locks and chains piled up. The lamps atop two light posts crumbled under the weight. Neighbors complained of vandalism. Politicians who tried to solve the problem were accused — and this is bad in Italy — of being anti-love.

Late last month, a solution was put into place. City officials set up six sets of steel posts with chains on the bridge, so now lovers can declare themselves without damage to the infrastructure. And so this city of monuments has just created another one, if at a cost: tossing a key off Ponte Milvio, some Italians complain, may soon be as touristy as flipping a coin into the Trevi Fountain.

“It’s less romantic,” said Costantino Boccuni, 28, a soldier who had just affixed a lock to one of the new spots to declare his love for his wife of six years, Daniela, 26. “It was more beautiful before. It was more original.”

“Now, it’s more like a fashion,” he said.

But still, as Rome’s distinctly lovely light faded into evening, they did it. And in the few days since the new posts went up, dozens of new love locks have been sealed shut on Ponte Milvio, in a perfect world, forever. (Though in practice, the city will periodically prune the locks just as they sweep the coins from the Trevi Fountain.) People are also being encouraged to use a Web site, www.lucchettipontemilvio.com, where they can create virtual padlocks.

The story of how Ponte Milvio, north of Rome’s center, became the city’s symbol of love follows a particularly Italian script blending history, myth, truly ludicrous political posturing and the unexpected.

Built in 206 B.C., the bridge attracted lovers long ago. Tacitus, the first-century Roman historian and statesman, reported that even in his time it was “famous for its nocturnal attractions.” Emperor Nero, Tacitus said, visited the bridge “for his debaucheries.” (It is also the place where in 312, Constantine defeated his rival Maxentius. He became the first emperor to convert to Christianity, which to many Italians stands against the sort of love often found on Ponte Milvio.)

Last year, the writer Federico Moccia created the second installment of a story of young Romans called “I Want You.” Like many affairs, his hero’s starts with a lie: he convinces a potential girlfriend of an invented legend in which lovers wrap a lock and a chain around the third lamppost on the bridge’s northern side, lock it and throw the key into the Tiber.

“And then?” the girl asks.

“We’ll never leave each other,” he says, with no shame.

Mr. Moccia, 44, said he dreamed up the ritual. “I liked the idea of tying locks to love because it is more solid, tangible,” he said. The book sold 1.1 million copies, then the movie came out and soon life began imitating art.
. . .

“It is a precise sign of our times — there is a lack of dreaming,” he said. “We only hear bad news. There is no longer the smile of who we see from afar or near the dream. And that gesture of the lock on the bridge, of the feeling of the iron closing, it’s a promise. It’s beautiful.” . . ."

posted by maggie at 6:15 PM | Link |  

"Homosexuality and the Church"

Our own Eve Tushnet debates Luke Timothy Wilson in Commonweal, here. From Eve Tushnet's piece:

"One of the frightening aspects of loving somebody is the way that love can seem to offer unique access not only to pleasure but to truth. Love of another person-not only romantic love, but familial love and deep friendship as well-promises or threatens to reshape us completely. It can become the lens through which we see the world.

When I came out as a lesbian, provoked in part by a puppyish crush, I felt as though I had found the key that unlocked the secrets of the world. The only experience that has ever given me a greater rush of self-understanding was my conversion to Catholicism. The two experiences felt weirdly similar: both were frightening and illuminating, separating me to a certain extent from friends and family, yet both were prompted by love. . ."

posted by maggie at 4:36 PM | Link |  

Tim Gill's Money

Aug 7, 2007 DENVER POST:

Gay-rights activist Tim Gill and a network of his political allies last year funded 38 percent of the opposition to same-sex marriage bans across the country, according to a recent analysis of campaign contributions conducted by a nonpartisan group....

...Gill, 53, who founded Quark Inc. in 1981 and sold his interest seven years ago, has poured millions of dollars into state races over the past few years in an effort to strengthen gay rights.

In 2004, he and three other wealthy Colorado Democrats - billionaire Pat Stryker, former state Board of Education member Jared Polis and software entrepreneur Rutt Bridges - funneled millions into independent political groups. The maneuver is largely credited with giving Democrats control of the statehouse for the first time in more than 44 years...

posted by Imapp Staff at 10:44 AM | Link |  

Texas Marriage Ed

Aug 7, 2007 - Stateline.org:

States adopt marriage ed courses
By Christine Vestal, Stateline.org Staff Writer

Like the hapless couple in the new Robin Williams movie, “License to Wed,” marriage-bound Texas residents will soon be able to go to class to learn about the ups and downs of wedded life before they tie the knot.

Texas is the latest state to push marriage education, appropriating $7.5 million this year for programs aimed at reducing divorce rates and, in turn, promoting family stability and economic wellbeing. Couples who attend the Lone Star State’s optional marriage courses will be able to save the $60 they would otherwise pay for a marriage license starting September 1, 2008.

At least 28 other states have similar initiatives or will soon. Arkansas and Arizona lawmakers this year appropriated new funds for existing programs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), and at least 26 states won five-year federal grants for pre-marital counseling programs under a $1.5 billion Bush administration program aimed at fostering healthy marriages.

Critics say states should leave marriage education to churches and family counselors. But marriage education advocate Arlene Wohlgemuth says states have an interest in matrimony, from issuing marriage license, trying divorce cases and collecting child support to providing aid for a variety of social welfare problems that result from broken families....

posted by Imapp Staff at 2:05 PM | Link |  

Oklahoma Adoption Law Decision

Last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued a decision in a challenge to an Oklahoma law that prohibited the state from recognizing an adoption from another state, if the adoptive parents were a same-sex couple. The trial court had held the law unconstitutional and the court of appeals agreed.

Three same-sex couples and their adopted children had brought the case but the appeals court held two of the couples lacked standing because the injury they claimed the law did them was speculative (for one couple, that they would be hesitant to visit Oklahoma and for the other, that there was a chance some might not treat one of the women as a parent). The final couple had a valid claim because the state had refused to issue them an amended birth certificate with their names listed as parents.

The constitutional portion of the decision focused entirely on the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The majority held that this Clause “unequivocally” requires one state to accept the final judgments of other states and that there is no “public policy” exception to this requirement (as opposed to state legislation which cannot be forced on other states). Thus, the California adoption judgment in this case had to be recognized by Oklahoma and the statute that prevented such recognition violated the Full Faith and Credit Clause.
posted by William Duncan at 5:44 PM | Link |  

'Bigamous' Lesbian is Sentenced

Aug 6, 2007 BBC NEWS (UK):

'Bigamous' lesbian is sentenced
A woman who entered into a civil partnership with her lesbian partner while she was still married has been ordered to carry out community service.

Suzanne Mitchell, of Wingfield Gardens, Shrewsbury, pleaded guilty to breaching the 2004 Civil Partnerships Act.

The 30-year-old admitted making a false statement at her union with Caroline Beddows before her marriage to Charles Mitchell had been annulled.

Suzanne Mitchell was also given a suspended prison sentence on Monday.

Mitchell has since split with her female partner and has been reunited with her husband.

Judge Robin Onions said jailing the mother-of-five, who is pregnant, would have had a damaging effect on her children, who he described as the "only injured parties" in the case.

'Cruelty and deception'

Judge Onions said Mitchell had repeatedly lied in pursuit of the civil partnership and added her offence was one of "cruelty and deception".

Mitchell was given an eight-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

She was also ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid community service and was made the subject of a two-year supervision order.

The case is believed to be the first of its kind since the new law on civil partnerships was introduced.

Judge Onions said he had used past bigamy cases as a guide when considering Mitchell's sentence.

Bus stop meeting

The court heard that Mitchell initially claimed she did not understand the seriousness of the civil partnership ceremony and claimed to have thought it was a type of "blessing" for her friendship.

Mark Linkins, for the prosecution, told the court that Mitchell and Miss Beddows became friends after meeting at a bus stop when they were both pregnant.

In September 2005 Miss Beddows and her baby moved into the Mitchells' family home.

Mr Linkins said that in February 2006 Mitchell and Miss Beddows went through with the civil partnership ceremony at Shrewsbury register office, where Mitchell falsely declared she was single.

After the hearing, Mitchell, two of whose children live with different fathers, said: "I just want to go home and see my kids."

posted by Imapp Staff at 1:18 PM | Link |  

Should Polygamy Be a Right? Canadian Debate Continues

Canadian Legal Experts Dispute Argument Same-Sex Marriage Allows Polygamy
by The Canadian Press
Posted: August 3, 2007 - 4:00 pm ET
www.365gay.com/Newscon07/08/080307poly.htm

". . .Same-sex marriage protections wouldn't necessarily translate into similar protection for polygamous marriages, say legal experts.

The question put before the courts on same-sex marriage centered around equality rights -Section 15 of the Charter. Those arguing against the law banning polygamy would probably argue it violates the right to religious freedom - Section 2a.

"When the state provides civil marriage it is supposed to follow the charter," said Leckey. "But when the state recognizes civil marriages, there are a lot of ways it doesn't recognize all the religious marriages that are out there."

The arguments mounted by same-sex advocates and those seeking to strike down the polygamy law may be different, but one has certainly affected the other, said Nick Bala, a Queens University Law professor who has written widely about laws governing marriage in Canada.

"We had a definition of marriage in this country for hundreds of years _ the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. As long as that was the definition and the accepted definition, it was difficult to challenge it, in terms of same-sex marriage or in terms of polygamy,: he said.

But with the legal precedent set by same-sex marriage, the polygamous debate can now move forward.Bala expects the argument will make its way to the Supreme Court, but he predicted the law would be upheld. . .

"Recognizing same-sex marriage promotes equality," said Bala. "Recognizing polygamous marriage actually promotes inequality."

. . .B.C. Attorney- General Wally Oppal has called polygamous marriages abhorrent and the widely held view is that they're discriminatory and often cruel to women and children.

But the women of Bountiful, B.C., have tried in the past to tell the outside world that they are happy living the lives they have.Their supposed contentment is one of the reasons B.C. has been unable to bring criminal charges for sexual assault or exploitation against polygamous men in the colony, which would have been a legal end run around the polygamy law.

The women insisted all their acts were consensual.Their feelings on the matter will have to be taken into account by the courts.

When judges consider whether a law violates a freedom, they must also decide whether the potential harm created by striking down that law outweighs the right in question.

Opinions on the effects of polygamy are diverse, said Angela Campbell, a law professor also at McGill, who has studied how policy approaches to polygamy have affected women's rights.Campbell said she's seen studies that some women and children flourish in polygamous environments, while other studies suggest a host of social ills created by the marriages, citing jealous, poverty and ignored children as examples.

But, Campbell pointed out, they aren't unique issues to polygamy. "You don't criminalize other family structures that result in jealousy, not enough time for kids, poverty. You deal with them in other ways.". . ."
posted by maggie at 11:06 PM | Link |  

Mr. and Mrs. Guliani's "Romantic Little Secrets"

Aug 5, 2007 NYT:

"Until now, the Giulianis have declined to discuss the matter, calling it “a romantic secret.” But in the interviews, the couple provided their version of their introduction, saying that they met at Club Macanudo, a cigar bar on East 63rd Street, in May 1999. They said they were introduced by Dr. Burt Meyers, a specialist in infectious diseases at Mount Sinai Hospital who was there with Mrs. Nathan and had met Mr. Giuliani when his mother was a patient there.

After chatting for an hour, mostly about her work in the pharmaceutical industry, Mr. Giuliani asked for her phone number, they said. “She gave me a piece of paper to write it on,” he recalled. “One of our other romantic little secrets is I’ve kept it all these years in my wallet.”

After they began dating, Mrs. Giuliani had plans to fly to Hawaii on a vacation awarded to leading sales managers by her employer.

“He said, ‘Please don’t go,’ ” she recalled. “ ‘You’ve already become too important to me.’ ”

Mrs. Giuliani declined to comment when asked how she felt about dating a married man, or the complications involved in seeing him secretly.

Mr. Giuliani said: “I don’t discuss that in detail except to say that, you know, we love each other very much, and we have both found the person that we adore and can live with the rest of our lives. It didn’t happen for either of us young in life.”

Through her spokeswoman, Ms. Hanover, Mr. Giuliani’s ex-wife, declined to comment for this article. . ."

posted by maggie at 6:43 PM | Link |