Rainbow Law Center

Lobby For 2nd Parent Adoption!

Please contact your state representative and ask them to support HB 4131 (the "Second Parent Adoption Bill".)  Representative Alma Wheeler-Smith, Democrat from Ypsilanti Township, has introduced the Second Parent Adoption Bill for the 2009-2010 legislative session. The bill has been assigned to the House Judiciary committee. A public hearing is scheduled for April 22, 2009.   

 

Michigan courts have been largely unwilling to allow two unmarried people to jointly adopt a child.  In practical terms this means that children born to, or adopted by, gay and lesbian parents can only have one legal parent. Such an unjust arrangement has far reaching consequences if the legal parent dies or the couple breaks up.  The Second Parent Adoption Bill will allow every such child in the state of Michigan to have two legal parents.

 

Below is list of House Judiciary Committee members:   

 

Mark S. Meadows (D), Committee Chair, 69th District

• Ellen Cogen Lipton (D), Majority Vice-Chair, 27th District
• Lisa Brown (D), 39th District
• Bob Constan (D), 16th District
• Marc R. Corriveau (D), 20th District
• Andy Coulouris (D), 95th District
• Andrew J. Kandrevas (D), 13th District
• Bettie Cook Scott (D), 3rd District
• Rebekah Warren (D), 53rd District
• Tonya Schuitmaker (R), Minority Vice-Chair, 80th District
• Justin Amash (R), 72nd District
• Joseph Haveman (R), 90th District
• Rick Jones (R), 71st District
• Eileen Kowall (R), 44th District
• Tory Rocca (R), 30th District

Please contact your state representative even if they are not on the House Judiciary Committee as we are confident that HB 4131 will pass out of committee and be sent to the full House for a vote.  It is extremely important that every state representative is contacted and asked to support this legislation.  To that end, please forward this request to your friends and family and ask them to contact their state representative as well.

 

You can find your representative by typing in your zip code at http://www.house.mi.gov/find_a_rep.asp

If you would like additional information about the Second Parent Adoption Bill please visit the Coalition for Adoption Rights Equality ("CARE") website at www.secondparentadoption.org.

Let your voices be heard

If you live in Kalamazoo, you have 10 days left in order to make your voice and your opinion known regarding the anti-discrimination ordinance for that city.

Here's how you can comment on the city of Kalamazoo's plan to propose a second anti-discrimination ordinance aimed at housing, public accommodation and employment protections for gays, lesbians and transgender individuals.

Phone: Call 552-6089. This is the city's temporary hotline for recorded comments on the issue. E-mail: Send comments to [email protected]. Mail: Send to Kalamazoo City Commission, 241 W. South St., Kalamazoo, MI 49007.

In addition to making general comments, responders are asked to answer these three questions:

1. A city of Kalamazoo ordinance currently prohibits discrimination regarding the sale or rental of property. How would an expansion of the ordinance to address discrimination in employment and public accommodation affect you?

2. The city of Kalamazoo ordinance addressing housing discrimination prohibits discrimination on the basis of a person's religion, race, color, national origin or sex. How would broadening the categories of protection to include a person's sexual orientation or gender identity specifically affect you?

3. Should these proposed expansions of the city ordinance addressing discrimination be approved by the city commission? Why or why not?

Public comment will be accepted until midnight March 26.

This article (http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2009/03/debate_over_kalamazoo_gayright.html) provides some background. 

Mixed Emotions

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passed the House of Representatives yesterday, by a largely partisan vote of 235-184.  The Act, which protects workers from job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, passed without the transgender inclusive language which would have protected American workers on the basis of their gender identity or expression.

I have mixed emotions about this bill.  On the one hand, I am terribly proud of the US House of Representatives for finally passing this law which could protect millions of people from unwarranted discrimination in the workplace. This bill was first introduced (sans transgender protections then, as well) in the 1970s.  Passage of it has been a long time in the making.  Given the shift to the right we have witnessed in this country in the past several years (or perhaps just the shift in rhetoric), it took some courage on the part of these legislators to vote for a "Pro-gay" bill.

On the other hand, I am deeply disappointed that these same legislators decided to bring this bill to the floor at this time.  I believe them when they say they did not have the votes to pass a transgender inclusive bill.  I also believe the pundits who say that this bill, now passed in one house, will not make it into law during this session of Congress.  Either it will not get past the Senate, or the President will veto it.  So, why introduce a bill that only protects a part of the LGBT population?  Why not wait until after the elections next year when it is more likely we'll have a President who is more compassionate toward Americans?

I am very proud to have been among the very first transgender Americans to have walked the halls of Congress to help educate our Senators and Representatives about what it means to be transgender.  I attended the very first "National Lobby Day" and each of the 5 succeeding ones and have met with literally dozens of congress people and their staffs over the years.  Most of them had never heard the word "transgender" before meeting me or my fellow lobbyists.  To hear our rights debated on the floor of the House of Representatives was a stirring moment for me.  I only wish it had been a debate about including us in the family of Americans, instead of reinforcing our exclusion.

Rally in Lansing -- SSDP Benefits

This past February the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled against public institutions' ability to offer same-sex domestic-partner benefits.

Michigan is the first state to rule this way and this discriminatory decision will continue to hurt families, their children and loved ones across the state if action is not taken. For more information on this issue, visit http://www.tri.org/protectourfamilies/index.html.

You can join others in protest and in support of legislation to overturn this ruling in a rally at the state capitol tomorrow, May 22 at 3:00 PM.  If you happen to be in Ann Arbor, you can catch a bus to Lansing at the Cube at 1:30.

See the attached flyer: Download ssdp_rally_flyer.pdf

2nd Parent Adoption Bill passes out of Judiciary

House Bill  4259, which we first discussed here has passed out of the Judiciary Committee (on May 9; we apologize for the delay in reporting - we had a death in the family) as we expected.

It is now up to the full House to vote.  NGLTF is asking Michigan residents to E-mail House Speaker Andy Dillon.  We endorse that request.  Their suggested letter:

Dear Speaker Dillon:

I am writing to ask you to support House Bill 4259, commonly referred to as the Second Parent Adoption Bill. Second parent adoption provides children being raised by unmarried parents the legal, financial and psychological protections that two parents provide.

According to the U.S. Children’s Bureau, there are 100,000 children in foster care who have a goal of adoption or whose parents’ rights have been terminated but who have no adoption resource. In February 2007, Michigan had more than 6,000 children waiting to be adopted, 41 percent of whom were older than 10. The older the waiting child, the less likely he or she is to be adopted; indeed, these children are more likely to “graduate” from foster care than to ever live in loving families. In Michigan, for example, nearly 80 percent of those who enter foster care at age 12 or older will leave the system without returning to their original homes and without being adopted (U.S. Children’s Bureau, 2005). These children suffer from high rates of homelessness, poverty, substance abuse and early pregnancy. These children need permanent homes not just until they turn 18, but for their lifetimes.

The emotional and social costs to children who never have permanent families are enormous. So too are the costs to the taxpayer. Adoption is much less expensive than foster care. Richard Barth and his colleagues recently released a study showing that governments save $35,800 per child for every 100 foster care cases closed for adoption over the first eight years, compared to the expense of keeping those kids in foster care (Barth, Lee, Wildfire & Guo, 2005). Because of the number of children in foster care and needing permanent homes, adoption laws must be expanded so that more families can become adoptive parents.

Michigan’s current economic crisis mandates its decisionmakers to find ways to save the state money and protect its most vulnerable. This bill does just that.

The Evan P. Donaldson Institute published a study that found that same-sex couples provide healthy, loving homes when they adopt and can therefore be a valuable resource in expanding the pool of prospective parents for waiting children.

Michigan’s chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, the Michigan Association of Infant Mental Health, Spaulding for Children, the Michigan Women’s Commission and the State Bar of Michigan Family Law Section, to name a few, all support House Bill 4259.

Second parent adoptions are in children’s best interest. Please support the right of all children to have two parents by voting for House Bill 4259.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]

Lobby for our Families

Today Mary and Denise attended training for the advocacy of our families, sponsored by Triangle and Coalition for Adoptive Rights Equality (CARE).  At our training session we discussed the status of Michigan House Bill 4259, an initiative that would remove the legal ambiguity and hostility toward second parent adoption by adding the words: Two unmarried persons may petition to adopt a child by filing a petition under this section. In support of that legislation, CARE is sponsoring a Lobby Day in Lansing on Tuesday, May 1. We will attend and lobby our very conservative representative and senator.  We hope to see you there.

To learn more, either visit CARE's site, or download this informative booklet: Download 2PA__Briefing_Book_4_07.doc

SVSU - Angels in America - Rep. Brandenburg

From Triange Foundation comes this disturbing story:

Despite the budget crisis that the State of Michigan is in State Representative Jack Brandenburg is spending his time calling for hearings to investigate Saginaw Valley State University - a University that isn't even in his district - and asking for their funding be withheld immediately.  What could be so important that the Representative would divert his attention away from our state's economy and focus it on further damaging a higher education institution that is already suffering as a result of the state's financial crisis?  Representative Brandenburg is attacking SVSU because the American Family Association has told him he should be upset over SVSU's production of the Tony, Emmy and Pulitzer Prize winning, "Angels in America."

In a April 26 interview with WJR, Representative Brandenburg called for Michigan's Speaker of the House to open hearings on SVSU.  He has also called for funds to be withheld from SVSU and for the President of SVSU, Eric R. Gilbertson, to resign.  This interview prompted the host of the WJR show, Frank Beckmann, to write a column in The Detroit News supporting Representative Brandenburg's.  Simply put - this has gone too far.  At least three other universities in Michigan have staged "Angels in America" and even The University of Notre Dame has produced the play.

Triangle Foundation believes it is time for Representative Brandenburg to stop being manipulated by Gary Glenn and the American Family Association and end his attack on artistic expression and the First Amendment.  It is time for him to stop blackmailing and hurting SVSU and start figuring out how he can help higher education institutions excel.

This is another example of homophobic and transphobic elected officials using artificial reasons to attack the GLBT community, including GLBT youth.  It is further evidence why laws like Matt's Safe Schools Law must be passed and enacted.  Send a message to your State Representative and ask them to put an end to Representative Brandenburg's attack on SVSU and then find out how you can help support the passage of Matt's Safe Schools Law.