We couldn’t have asked a more perfect day for a rally at our Capitol.

I’ll be at both.
LGBT Lobby Day / Rally for Fairness

Rainbow Families Conference.
(I’ll be signing books at the Amazon Bookstore table.)

Here’s another great opportunity for my advice column to reach new readers:
Rainbow Rumpus, an online magazine for kids of LGBT parents, has been running reprints of my advice column on their site (with my permission) in a section specifically for parents. This month’s question is about teens adjusting to a newly blended lesbian-parent household.
Minnesota’s new [...]

From an SLDN press release:

Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-NY) today [Feb. 7] urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to consider hiring military linguists discharged under the federal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual service members. During hearings on the 2008 State Department budget, Ackerman pressed Secretary Rice to address the government’s foreign [...]

I met Rebecca Lazarus in Dallas at the LGBT Family Conference last October. Here she is with her dads in their Halloween costumes — that’s a paint brush behind her ear. I had to take this photo because I loved the metaphor: Rebecca as the creative artist, her parents as her willing [...]

The following is a statement by MassEquality Campaign Director Marc Solomon:
Nothing has changed. The Court rejected our opponents’ demands and said the legislature cannot be compelled to vote to advance an amendment it fundamentally disagrees with. Legislators have not only the freedom, but the responsibility to handle the issue responsibly and vote their conscience.
After 18 [...]

The New York Times reports new restrictions on people interested in adopting from China. Apparently, the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs can afford to be picky since they are getting more requests than there are babies available.
China Tightens Adoption Rules for Foreigners
By Pam Belluck and Jim Yardley
Published: December 20, 2006
(registration required)
Which hopeful prospective parents [...]

From a college student in Virginia:
I have recently been given an opinion paper assignment on gay-marriage.
I have one question, that I could not locate in your website. How do most LGBT individuals identify religiously? I realize that there is a world of struggle for “marriage” rights and equality, and as I’ve understood it, marriage [...]

If you have friends or family in any of these states:

Arizona
Colorado
Idaho
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Virginia
Wisconsin
Please “Phone Home” today. It is easy, fast, and could make all the difference in reaching the “Movable Middle.”
Read the tips I wrote in a previous post on how to send an effective message to your loved ones.

When marriage equality is “left up to the States to decide” (which is often a centrist-seeming response many politicians offer), same-sex couples are still denied the federal rights that come with marriage. Social Security benefits is a big one. Another one is the right for a non-U.S. partner to be sponsored to stay in the [...]