SAGE is designed to enhance the lives of older LGBT adults and seniors, and in the Chicago area that’s estimated at around 40,000 LGBT people over age 55. That’s a large population! And what a forward-thinking program. SAGE is receiving the third largest federal grant awarded to an LGBT aging program in the United States.

Nice to know we are taking steps forward for our community everyday.

U.S. CENSUS DATA

One in five male couples and one in three lesbian couples were raising children as of the 2000 Census. That’s way up from 1990, when one in 20 male couples and one in five lesbian couples had kids.

A NEW PUBLISHED CLINICAL STUDY

And new research now shows that children raised by same-sex couples appear to do as well as those raised by parents of both sexes,  challenging the long-ingrained belief that children need male and female parents for healthy adjustment.

“It’s more about the quality of the parenting than the gender of the parents,” says Judith Stacey of New York University, co-author of the comprehensive review. It will be published Friday in the Journal of Marriage and Family.

“Children being raised by same-gender parents, on most all of the measures that we care about, self-esteem, school performance, social adjustment and so on, seem to be doing just fine and, in most cases, are statistically indistinguishable from kids raised by married moms and dads on these measures.” 

In addition to child outcomes, the sociologists reviewed parenting styles and found “two women who choose to parent together are slightly more likely than a heterosexual couple to be actively committed to hands-on parenting.

A NEW PUBLISHED RESEARCH BOOK

Also, there’s another new comprehensive study being published in a book called Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children: Research on the Family Life Cycle, by Abbie Goldberg, an assistant professor of psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

Among findings outlined in Goldberg’s book:

• The transition to parenthood is similar for both homosexual couples and heterosexual couples.

• Children of gay couples don’t differ from their peers raised by heterosexual couples in terms of their mental health, self-esteem, life satisfaction, social skills or number of friends.

• Children in gay families are teased more about their families and their sexuality but are not teased more overall.

Stephanie Woolley-Larrea, 36, of Miami says she and her partner, Mary Larrea, 49, have tried to prepare their 7-year-old triplets (two girls and a boy) to face such ridicule, but “it’s been a non-issue.” Her kids know “their family is not like everybody else’s” but “think it is much more unusual that they are triplets than that they have gay moms.”

It makes me excited to become a lesbian mom someday soon!

Ted Olson and David Boies, two high-profile lawyers (who worked the Bush v. Gore 2000 opposing one another) representing two same-sex couples who were denied the right to marry, are challenging Proposition 8’s federal constitutionality and believe that it should be repealed.

“This unequal treatment of gays and lesbians denies them the basic liberties and equal protection under the law that are guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution,” their suit states.

According to the suit, Proposition 8:

• Violates the Due Process Clause by impinging on fundamental liberties
• Violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
• Singles out gays and lesbians for a disfavored legal status, thereby creating a category of “second-class citizens.”
• Discriminates on the basis of gender.
• Discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation.

The trial is supposed to be made available for viewing tonight on YouTube, so if you are interested in watching the hearing minute by minute be looking out for that! 

You can also show your support without even leaving your chair by “attending” on the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210238489967&ref=ts

Shopping can move mountains. Especially when we’re talking about mountains of discrimination against the LGBT community. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has done an exhaustive audit of big, key brands to see who treats our people well, and who doesn’t– and then scored each one for our convenience. It’s called the Corporate Equality Index, or BUYING FOR EQUALITY 2010.

So what does it mean to score 100 percent? It means those companies have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (hallelujah!), provide benefits for LGBT employees and their families (amen!) and publicly support LGBT equality (praise them all!). And you know what’s even cooler? Despite a recession, there are MORE companies this year that scored 100 percent than last year! I’m talking 305 golden organizations compared to 260 just a year earlier. Just amazing. 

So, you ask, what are some of these forward-thinking, non-discriminating companies? 

Target. Best Buy. CVS. Anheiser-Busch. HomeDepot. Borders. Shell. AllState. American Express. Time Warner. Starbucks. Abercrombie & Fitch. Subaru. Nike. Apple. Dell. JetBlue. Orbitz. Mattel. UPS.

And the list goes on….. To view the full list by shopping category, visit http://www.hrc.org/buyersguide2010/category.htm?category=where_to_shop 

Now the power is in our hands to reward the good companies by patronizing them, and speak volumes by keeping our money in our pocket when we walk by the others. 

Parker celebrates with her partner Photo: AP

History has been made…deep in the heart of Texas.  Where the doctrine of the conservative right usually reigns, a mold has been broken.  Houston, TX is the largest city in the United States to elect an openly gay mayor.  Annise Parker has done it – and she has not only proven herself worthy of the job, but has also proven that when it comes down to it, even a city in the conservative south is growing less and less concerned with a candidate’s gender and sexual orientation and more concerned with the issues.

The LGBT community is celebrating Parker’s win as hope for a more promising future.

“The fact that an openly gay candidate wins for mayor in the nation’s fourth largest city, in the South, in Texas, shows that when Americans get to know gay people as people, not as stereotypes, their resistance to treating gay people equally reduces,” Evan Wolfson, director of Freedom to Marry, a gay-marriage advocacy group, told USA Today.

All of those anti-gay campaign efforts in Houston led anti-gay activists and conservative religious groups failed to sway the opinion of the majority.  What is that old saying…oh yes, stick and stones may break my bones but…Annise Parker has won anyway!

With this great news also comes some concerning news.  The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington last month threatened to cut their social service programs if the bill passed.  Now that that has happened, the Archdiocese is determined to stand strong on keeping its promise.  The Archbishop would cut homeless shelters, food programs for needy families, and health services rather than provide equal benefits for employees in same-sex marriages. 

Does that make any sense at all?  It doesn’t seem like the way of Jesus to use the needy and homeless as anti-gay pawns.  We will have to just wait and see if they actually follow through with this horrible threat.

We also have to wait a little bit longer to see if the bill actually becomes law.  The bill now goes to the Mayor Adrian Fenty, who has promised to sign it. The U.S. Congress then has 30 days to review the legislation. After that window passes, the bill becomes law!  We will definitely keep you updated on this situation, but all we can do for now is stay hopeful.

Both Democratic candidates, it appears to be tough fight between the two — a neck and neck race to the finish pulling out all the stops.  Parker has been endorsed by the HRC and the Houston Chronicle, while Locke has been endorsed by the Houston Police Department.   

Parker’s run doesn’t come without controversy of course.  Keep in mind, this race is in Houston — not in Austin, our lovely open-minded bubble we are proud to call home.  Unfortunately, there are bigots out there like David Wilson who are pitted against Parker and using dirty tactics to make sure she does not win the majority vote.  For those unfamiliar, he is the man (and I use that word lightly) who crusaded to refuse benefits to partners of City of Houston LGBT employees.  The Houston Chronicle reported that Wilson sent out nearly 35,000 fliers to Houston residents depicting Parker and her partner alongside the message, “Is this the image Houston wants to portray?” The Chronicle also reported him as saying that “he is concerned that Parker, if elected, would become a gay and lesbian cultural icon and an inspiration to others to enter politics.”  Oh. My. Gosh.  God FORBID young gays and lesbians have dreams!  

Anyway, I’m not going to let a sorry-excuse-for-a-human-being like David Wilson have the last word in this article –so I will say to David:

Damn straight Parker is and will be an inspiration for LGBT people young and old, near and far.  And you know why?  Because she’s got class (something which you apparently lack), she’s got heart, and she’s not afraid to be who she is.  Here’s MY official endorsement for Annise Parker – a woman who is all of these things: A board member of the Holocaust Museum and Girls Inc., an advisory board member of the Houston Zoo, the Montrose Counseling Center and Trees for Houston.  And last but not certainly least, we can look up to Parker because she has been with her partner, Kathy Hubbard for nearly 20 years, and together they have adopted two children.  She is a family woman and she is a lesbian — Wow. I bet you thought you never hear those two classifications in the same sentence — did you, David?     

Despite Paterson’s efforts to fight for the right’s of homosexuals to marry, the same-sex marriage bill was voted down in New York on Wednesday.  Supporters of the bill predicted a close vote going into Wednesday’s Senate debate, but unfortunately the margin was a bit wider then expected.  By the unanimous voices of the Republicans and 8 of Paterson’s fellow Democrats, the bill was voted down 38 – 24.

Only one senator actually spoke in opposition to the bill during the debate.  Senator Ruben Diaz, a Democrat and Pentecostal minister, claimed “If we take it to the people, the people oppose it.” 

Sen. Ruben Diaz opposes same-sex marriage

Senator Eric Adams, a Brooklyn Democrat, fired back that most of the 31 states Diaz cited as voting against legalizing same-sex marriage “at one time or another sold blacks into slavery.  Because the majority is in one place does not mean they’re in the right place.  We’re in a position now where we have to lead the country to the right place.”

Sen. Eric Adams rallys for Human Rights

 New York would have been the 6^th state to legalize same-sex marriage, but now joins the others in denying same-sex couples the right to marry.  Despite this hiccup in the campaign for equal rights, we must recognize that each year the margin narrows more and more in the votes.  So yes, it may be dark now but we can definitely see the sun rising in the distance.

The new law also provides the Justice Department with the ability to aid state and local jurisdictions either by lending assistance or, where local authorities are unwilling or unable, by taking the lead in investigations and prosecutions of violent crime resulting in death or serious bodily injury that were motivated by bias.  It also makes grants available to state and local communities to combat violet crimes committed by juveniles, train law enforcement officers, or to assist in state and local investigations and prosecutions of bias motivated crimes.

This is a monumental victory in the Human Rights movement, and something that is long overdue.  It took 12 years, over one millions emails, faxes and phone calls to Congress, and 14 separate votes on the floors of the House and the Senate to turn the hate crimes bill into law.

Let’s start with the bitter and end with the sweet. As many of you are aware, in May earlier this year lawmakers in Maine and New Hampshire voted in favor of same-sex marriage. However, now it seems that Maine shares the same fate as California. On November 3rd, voters in Maine narrowly rejected the state law that would have allowed same-sex couples to wed. 53% of voters opposed gay marriage while 47% supported it. Maine would have been the 6th state in the country to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry, but instead it is now the 31st state to oppose the unions in a popular vote.

In more bitter news, New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, endorsed by the Humans Right Council, lost his re-election bid. Corzine had been a strong ally for LGBT people in New Jersey, and had pledged repeatedly that he would sign a marriage equality bill that could still be passed by legislators later this year. Also, in Virginia, HRC endorsed Creigh Deeds lost his bid for governor. However, there will be new pro-equality voices in the House of Delegates next year.

Now for the sweet! In Washington state, voters have cast their ballots to approve Referendum 71, a measure that expands domestic partnerships to have every state-level right and benefit afforded to married couples. The tally saw the vote to approve R-71 leading about 52 percent to 48 percent.

Finally, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, right-wing groups wanted to make sure it stayed legal to fire or refuse housing to someone just because they’re LGBT. 65% of Kalamazoo voters disagreed and voted to approve Ordinance 1856, expanding the city’s existing anti-discrimination law to include sexual orientation and gender identity.