Marriage & Family

The Face of the Phoenix

By Justin Katz | January 9, 2007 |

An unsigned editorial on thephoenix.com (from which I’ve borrowed that picture) takes the oh-so-tolerant position that disagreement with its opposition to allowing Massachusetts’ citizens to vote on same-sex marriage is simply ugly bigotry: Bigot is, to be sure, a nasty name. But what would you call someone who denied women or blacks the right to…

Canada Makes it Official: Heather Can (legally) have 2 Mommies and a Daddy

By Marc Comtois | January 8, 2007 |

Back in October, I posted, and Justin elaborated (and I further elaborated) about a NY Times story (“Gay Donor or Gay Dad“)on the the inherent difficulties and consequences of having 2 lesbian women and a male sperm donor (and possibly his partner) all seeking to press a claim on the parenthood of a child. Yet,…

Massachusetts Pols End Up Listening to the People

By Marc Comtois | January 2, 2007 |

In the end, the Massachusetts Legislature ignored governor Duval Patrick and decided to listen to the voters–or perhaps the Massachusetts Supreme Court–and voted to allow a vote on a State Constitutional ban on gay marriage. Lawmakers in Massachusetts, the only state where gay marriage is legal, on Tuesday voted to advance a proposed constitutional amendment…

Children of “Murphy Browns” Paying the Price

By Marc Comtois | December 18, 2006 |

Dan Quayle was taken to task many years ago for his “Murphy Brown” speech, in which he said: Ultimately however, marriage is a moral issue that requires cultural consensus, and the use of social sanctions. Bearing babies irresponsibly is, simply, wrong. Failing to support children one has fathered is wrong. We must be unequivocal about…

RI Approves Abstinence Education

By Marc Comtois | December 4, 2006 |

Heritage of Rhode Island has overcome intitial objections put forward by the RI Dep’t of Education and has received approval to implement it’s “Right Time, Right Place” abstinence education program in RI’s schools. The key concession seems to be that the “only” of the heretofore proposed “Abstinence-only” program has been dropped. “Heritage’s ‘Right-Time, Right-Place’ curriculum…

Leaving the Door Open on the Way Out

By Justin Katz | November 22, 2006 |

It ought to raise suspicions about their cause when marriage advocates seek to advance it through divorce: [Karen L. Loewy, staff attorney for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders] said Rhode Island recognizes marriages validly entered in other jurisdictions, unless there’s a strong public policy reason not to, and she said there’s no such reason…

RE: Heather has Two Mommies….: It’s About Heather

By Marc Comtois | November 21, 2006 |

I’d like to thank Justin for elaborating upon my initial post and also direct you to Stanley Kurtz’s post on the NY Times Magazine piece, “Gay Donor or Gay Dad?“. As Justin explains: With “alternative” families, it’s not so much that the family’s story is more complicated as that it must be made complicated in…

Re: Heather has Two Mommies…

By Justin Katz | November 20, 2006 |

I wonder if you’ve fully articulated your beliefs, here, Marc: I agree that–other than their unique family structure–there is nothing that sets these folks apart from “average” people. I ask because I think your “however” is insufficiently strong to stand its own ground in the cultural arena: However, I think that the baseline structure of…

Heather has Two Mommies…..and Two Daddies…er Donors…or One Donor and some other Guy

By Marc Comtois | November 20, 2006 |

I urge everyone to read this NY Times Magazine piece, “Gay Donor or Gay Dad?” about the complicated nature of family relationships that can develop when two same-sex partners seek a donor to assist them in starting a family. Reading the whole thing is essential because it is a complicated piece about a new, complicated…

Having Their Commitment and Needing It, Too

By Justin Katz | October 25, 2006 |

Mary Norton and Wendy Becker — both from the famously underprivileged professional class of college professors — have made substantial progress in their quest to disprove all of those same-sex marriage advocates who swore that judges would not be able to export the marriage policy that they (the judges) had created in Massachusetts. In a…