(San Francisco, CA, March 17, 2016)—A new report released today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows increasing national support for adoptions by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender parents. The National Survey on Family Growth, which studies attitudes toward a broad range of social issues, including those impacting the LGBTQ community, shows support for adoption by same-sex parents is up from 55 to 75 percent among women and from 47 to 68 percent among men. “The...
Our Voices
(Washington, DC, March 7, 2016)—Today, the United States Supreme Court unanimously reversed an Alabama Supreme Court decision refusing to recognize a lesbian mother’s prior adoption of her three children in Georgia. Today’s summary reversal restores V.L. full rights as an adoptive parent. “I am overjoyed that the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Alabama court decision,” said the adoptive mother, V.L. “I have been my children’s mother in every way for their whole lives. I thought that adopting...
(Huntsville, AL, January 27, 2016)—The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) will host the next #RuralPride summit in Huntsville, Alabama on February 4. The event, co-hosted by the True Colors Fund, will be held at the Alabama A&M University, Agricultural Research Center (ARC), Building 0870, 4900 Meridian Street North, Huntsville, Alabama, from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM. #RuralPride is a partnership between NCLR and USDA that challenges the...
Beginning January 1, 2016, California law will fully protect families conceiving children through assisted reproduction, regardless of how they conceive. California law already recognized many families using assisted reproduction, but it only provided protections to certain families. Assembly Bill 960—signed into law by California Gov. Jerry Brown in late 2015—provides several important new protections to ensure that all families are treated equally by the law. First, California did not...
(Washington, D.C., December 17, 2015)—A broad range of leading adoption advocates and constitutional and family law scholars and experts filed friends of the court briefs today in support of a lesbian mother in Alabama who is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review an Alabama Supreme Court order refusing to recognize her adoption of her three children. Last month, V.L. asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Alabama Supreme Court decision refusing to recognize her as an adoptive parent to...
(Washington, D.C., December 14, 2015)—Today, the U.S. Supreme Court granted an Alabama lesbian mother’s request for an emergency stay of an Alabama Supreme Court order refusing to recognize her adoption of her three children. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling today suspends the Alabama Supreme Court decision so that she will be able to have visitation pending the Court’s consideration of her case. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas referred the application, which was joined by the...
(Tallahassee, FL, December 9, 2015)—Today, the married same-sex couples suing the State of Florida asked a federal court to order state officials to list both parents on their children’s birth certificates as Florida already does for children born to married different-sex couples. On August 13, 2015, the couples, along with Equality Florida Institute, the largest organization representing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Floridians, filed a lawsuit challenging Florida’s unconstitutional...
(Birmingham, AL, November 16, 2015)—Today, a lesbian mother in Alabama asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review an Alabama Supreme Court decision refusing to recognize her as an adoptive parent of her three children and holding that Alabama does not have to recognize second-parent adoptions granted by Georgia courts. The mother also asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order permitting her to visit her children while her appeal is pending. As a result of an earlier Alabama order, she has not...
(Tallahassee, FL, October 16, 2015)—Today, the same-sex couples who filed a federal lawsuit challenging Florida’s refusal to add both of their names to their children’s birth certificates asked the court for immediate protection for their families. The request for a preliminary injunction filed by Debbie and Kari Chin of St. Petersburg and Yadira Arenas and Alma Vazquez of Winter Haven says: “Defendants’ discriminatory denial of equal birth certificates to Plaintiffs and their children …...
(San Francisco, CA, October 7, 2015)—Today, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that updates the state’s assisted reproduction laws to ensure that all families are equally protected under the law. Authored by Assemblymember David Chiu, Assembly Bill 960 updates current assisted reproduction laws in three ways: first, unmarried couples using assisted reproduction to become parents will be recognized as such on the same terms as married parents from the moment their child is born;...
