Friday Gay Blogging

Yes, I know it's Tuesday, but I don't want to write about the Gulf oil spill or Helen Thomas (that last is significant because, with her retirement, there are no journalists left in the Washington Press corps), and I haven't done this in a while.  So here are a few tidbits:

From Daily Kos, a post on a new study that bears out something I ran across some while ago:

Now, new research from UCLA similarly suggests that "when compared to teens of the same age, adolescents raised by lesbian parents are doing just fine socially, psychologically and academically."  CNN described the findings of Dr. Nanette Gartrell, who led the study funded by several lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender advocacy groups, such as the Gill Foundation and the Lesbian Health Fund from the Gay Lesbian Medical Association.

A nearly 25-year study concluded that children raised in lesbian households were psychologically well-adjusted and had fewer behavioral problems than their peers.

The study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, followed 78 lesbian couples who conceived through sperm donations and assessed their children's well-being through a series of questionnaires and interviews...

Children from lesbian families rated higher in social, academic and total competence. They also showed lower rates in social, rule-breaking, aggressive problem behavior.

Gartrell explained that the mothers' strong motivation and involvement, as well as the fact that all of the pregnancies were planned, could account for the findings.  ""I would have anticipated the kids would be doing as well as the normative sample," she said, adding, "I didn't expect better."

Here's another article with more detail, including as quote from Wendy Wright of the Concerned Women for America:

"You have to be a little suspicious of any study that says children being raised by same-sex couples do better or have superior outcomes to children raised with a mother and father," she said. "It just defies common sense and reality."

Somehow, having someone like Wright talking about common sense and reality just doesn't quite cut it. I mean, this is an organization that cites the "research" of Paul Cameron.

Avenging Angel, the diarist, starts off with the story of poor Bill McCollum, who seems to have shot himself in both feet by hiring George Rekers as an expert witness in the Florida adoption case.  Just as a reminder, here's the judges comment about Rekers' testimony:

"Dr. Rekers' testimony was far from a neutral and unbiased recitation of the relevant scientific evidence. Dr. Rekers' beliefs are motivated by his strong ideological and theological convictions that are not consistent with the science. Based on his testimony and demeanor at trial, the court can not consider his testimony to be credible nor worthy of forming the basis of public policy."

The kicker here is that this wasn't the first time Rekers' testimony had been discounted, and McCollum's own staff recommended against using him.

Can you say "living in a fantasy world"?

This is important, I think:

Although we serve, respectively, as president of a progressive and chairman of a libertarian think tank, we are not joining the foundation's advisory board to present a "bipartisan" front. Rather, we have come together in a nonpartisan fashion because the principle of equality before the law transcends the left-right divide and cuts to the core of our nation's character. This is not about politics; it's about an indispensable right vested in all Americans.

This is from John Podesta and Robert Levy, who will be co-chairing the advisory board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the group that is backing Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, a/k/a "the Prop 8 case." This one is getting the support of people from across the political spectrum, which points out to me that it's a very strong case, and the time is right.

Another tidbit from the Obama administration, this time from HUD:

For the first time in its history, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will require grant applicants seeking HUD funding to comply with state and local anti-discrimination laws that protect lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. Today, HUD published a notice detailing the general requirements that will apply to all of the Department's competitively awarded grant programs for Fiscal Year 2010.

And the IRS has extended some very limited recognition to gay couples -- in California.

The Internal Revenue Service has ruled that same-sex couples must be treated the same as heterosexual couples under a feature of California tax law. Advocates for the change say it is the first time the agency has acknowledged gay couples as a unit for tax purposes.

The change reverses a 2006 IRS ruling and opens a tax benefit to many same-sex couples that wasn't available before. It may affect couples in Nevada and Washington state, as well.

Specifically, the agency said nearly 58,000 couples who are registered as domestic partners in California must combine their income and each report half of it on their separate tax returns. Same-sex couples account for an estimated 95% of the state's domestic partnerships; partnership status is also available to heterosexual couples in which one partner is over age 62.

I'm waiting for the cocktail party.

And the DADT non-repeal is not out of the woods yet:

Republicans are eyeing a provision that would require all service chiefs to certify that repeal — allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly — can be implemented consistent with the military’s standards of readiness, effectiveness, unit cohesion and recruitment and retention.

That's the best way they can think of to kill it. I have to wonder why, aside from Obama hate, they are gearing up to make something so non-controversial into an issue. Last poll shows 78% of Americans in favor of repeal, but the service chiefs and John McCain have been doing everything they can do to screw it up. It would be nice if Obama would show some balls on this one, but it has to do with Teh Gays, so don't hold your breath.

Small progress, but progress, nonetheless.