Posts Tagged ‘lgbt’

Teenager Takes On Arizona Schools — All Of Them

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

It’s almost as if you can’t turn around, these days, without bumping into someone suing someone else over something that seems silly to everyone but the person suing and, possibly, the person being sued.  Lawsuits involving kids and schools are no exception — parents seem to sue at the drop of a hat if they feel their precious snowflake has been slighted.  Even so, if there really is a problem, sometimes a lawsuit — or the threat of one, anyway — is exactly what’s needed to make things happen.  And so, Caleb Laieski has contacted school administrators in Arizona with the threat of a lawsuit if they don’t change their ways.  That is, he contacted all of them.

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Couple’s Niece and Nephew Are Also Grandkids

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

Here’s something you don’t see every day — a British couple has discovered that not only are they aunt and uncle but that they are also the grandparents of the same children.  Lynn and Charles Lowden learned that Lynn’s sister’s children were actually her own son’s offspring.  Now, before you start calling Jerry Springer, it’s not as bad as it might sound at first.

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Adoption Not Final In North Carolina

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

Imagine adopting a child and being that child’s parent for nearly a decade and then being told, oops, you’re not the parent after all.  Now imagine that the reason for this is that the child’s birth mother, with whom you were raising the child, didn’t give up her parental rights.  That’s the ruling handed down by the North Carolina Supreme Court on Monday.  Apparently, if an unmarried man wants to be a father to his partner’s child but isn’t the biological father, the mother has to give up her parental rights.

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The Video A Mother Should Never Have To Make

Friday, December 17th, 2010

Imagine losing a child — a teenager who is an intelligent, beautiful person with a great future ahead of them.  Imagine losing that child not because of some accident of nature or incurable disease but because of something easily preventable.  Imagine losing your child because of the thoughtlessness of their peers and the indifference of their teachers.  Wendy Walsh doesn’t have to imagine it; she lives it every day.

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Philadelphia Pays The Price For Discrimination

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Four years ago, the city of Philadelphia realized that they were giving a huge subsidy to a community organization to help them serve the citizens of the City of Brotherly Love even though that group systematically discriminated against a large part of the population.  So the city told the Boy Scouts of America’s Cradle of Liberty council that they would either have to change their anti-LGBT policies or begin paying fair-market rent for the city-owned, half-acre property that the group had been using as their headquarters for nearly 80 years.  Not surprisingly, the Boy Scouts didn’t like that.

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Zero Percent Abuse

Friday, November 12th, 2010

For years, hateful bigots have tried to associate gays and lesbians with pedophilia, claiming that gay and lesbian couples cannot possibly be allowed to be parents because it wouldn’t be safe for the children.  It looks like these folks are going to have to find a new boogeyman, based on the results of a new report.

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Moms and the Gay Kid

Friday, November 5th, 2010

There aren’t too many Halloween costumes I would forbid my kids from choosing.  The more horrific costumes and characters are out, as are overtly sexual ones.  Other than that, however, pretty much anything goes.  I also have no problem with the kids crossing gender lines, if they so desire.  My youngest loves putting on his older sister’s outgrown princess costumes and ballet skirts.  I don’t have any problem with that, nor do a lot of other parents — including one who went so far as to write a book on the subject.

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School Board Member Wants Students To Die

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

According to the Center for Public Education, school boards have one primary purpose: “first and foremost school boards look out for students.”  They do this, in part, by determining policies, selecting curriculum, and providing oversight and accountability for the schools in their districts.  So the last thing you’d expect from a member of a school board is to publicly and openly encourage people — including students from Midland School District which he represents — to kill themselves.  And yet, that’s what Clint McCance did.

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Suspended for a T-Shirt

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

The junior high and high school years are a time when kids are figuring out who they are and who they will become.  It’s important that we support them in that endeavor and make sure they know they are loved and accepted no matter what path they choose for themselves.  It’s also important that their school — teachers, administrators, and fellow students — take an active role in that support.  That’s why it’s especially heinous when a school does something like what happened in the Fort Smith School District in Arkansas.

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My Princess Boy — Lessons In Acceptance

Saturday, October 16th, 2010

When my oldest was in preschool, he used to run around singing “I Love Being A Princess,” a song from the Backyardigans TV show.  At school, he put on dresses and pranced about in heels.  In his case, however, it was simply a matter of a catchy tune and a lack of more traditionally male dress up items in the school’s dress up corner.  While he’s since moved on to other songs and other clothes, he sees nothing wrong with his younger brother repeating lines from a show about wishing to be a princess.  Thankfully, that sort of acceptance is no longer limited to San Francisco.

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