“Public acceptance for gay marriage in America has grown since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex unions in 2013.
Despite that shift in attitudes, though, a recent Tufts study found that gay fathers still feel the brunt of stigma, experiences that the researchers linked to states with fewer legal and social protections for gays and their families.”
Ireland: “A number of LGBT families have held a protest outside Leinster House calling for same-sex couples to be given legal recognition as parents.
The provision allowing for the measure is contained in the Children and Family Relationships Act, but has not been fully enacted.
The act, which was passed in 2015, allows for the option of including a co-parent on a birth certificate.”
“The federal government agreed Wednesday to allow federally funded foster care agencies in South Carolina to deny services to same-sex or non-Christian couples.
The waiver issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will allow Greenville’s Miracle Hill Ministries to continue as a state-supported foster care agency.”
“Jamie Lee Curtis confirms she has acquired the film rights to the story of an Oklahoma City woman who fills in for parents who refuse to attend their children’s same-sex weddings, the Washington Post reports.
Sara Cunningham, 55, first got Curtis’ attention last summer when she shared a PSA on her Facebook page: “If you need a mom to attend your same sex wedding because your biological mom won’t. Call me. I’m there. I’ll be your biggest fan. I’ll even bring the bubbles.”
“Two-thirds of gay fathers have felt the pain of social stigma, and they have encountered that stigma most often in religious settings, a new survey shows.
“We were not surprised that stigma is still experienced by gay fathers,” said study author Dr. Ellen Perrin. “But we did not expect so much stigma to be experienced in religious settings.”
In an anonymous survey of 732 American gay fathers spread across 47 states, researchers found that 63.5 percent said they had been shamed, hurt, excluded or made to feel uncomfortable in the prior year. Nearly one in five said their children had at times shied away from socializing out of anxiety that they would also encounter social stigma.”
