Can gay parents raise kids denver post
In 2013, during the oral arguments of Hollingsworth vs. Perry, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia claimed that “there’s considerable disagreement [a]mong sociologists as to what the consequences of raising a child in a [s]ingle-sex family, whether that is harmful to the infant or not.”
When I read this claim, it didn’t seem to square with generally approved social science at the time. The American Sociological Association (of which I am a member) and American Psychological Association, along with other professional organizations, had filed amici curiae briefs in the case.
These briefs reached a common conclusion: “Whether a child is raised by queer or opposite-sex parents has no bearing on a child’s well-being.”
Scalia’s claim was not merely a statement of opinion, but attempted to establish a fact: Social scientists disagree. But did they? Recently sociologists developed a move that allows researchers to answer questions like these empirically. Citation patterns among published research can be analyzed in a way that identifies if and when scientists achieved consensus about any particular question.
Sometimes s
The Archdiocese of Denver provides local Catholic schools with explicit written guidance on the handling of LGBTQ issues, including telling administrators they should not enroll or re-enroll transgender or gender non-conforming students, and that gay parents should be treated differently than heterosexual couples.
This 17-page document, titled “Guidance for Issues Concerning the Human Person and Sexual Identity,” was obtained by The Denver Post and confirmed by the archdiocese. In advising administrators on how to deal with gay and transgender students, parents and staff, it warns that “the spread of gender ideology presents a hazard to the faith of Christians.”
Among other guidance, the document said schools should not allow students to use pronouns “at odds with the student’s physiological sex.” School officials are advised not to promote students’ acceptance and endorsement of LGBTQ identities. Teachers who decide to transition are “not suited to teach in a Catholic school or to convey out the school’s mission in any capacity.”
At the same time, the document implores schools to present compassion for gay and transgender students, saying ministry toward LGBTQ students should be execu
At a time when the U.S. Supreme Court has opened the door to greater public funding for private religious schools, a lower court ruling in Colorado could have huge implications for the separation of church and express in education.
At the center of the case are two Catholic preschools in suburban Denver that wish exemptions from state non-discrimination rules based on sexual orientation and gender culture. The parishes that operate the preschools sued the state last year because they didn’t want to have to admit LGBTQ children or children from LGBTQ families if the preschools joined Colorado’s accepted new state-funded preschool program.
After a trial in January, a federal judge largely ruled in the state’s favor in June. But the preschools are now appealing — and the case could wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Colorado lawsuit is one of several similar cases unfolding across the country.
If the Catholic preschools win, it’s doable Colorado children could be shut out of some preschools because of their or their parents’ identities.
Brittany, the mother of a 7-year-old transgender girl, choked up as she talked about the lawsuit. Her daughter Naomi is an art-loving,
5 Gay Parenting Myths
Opponents of gay marriage and adoption often frame their criticisms in terms of what's best for children. Allowing woman loving woman, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) couples to raise boys and girls, they may attest, endangers healthy child growth in myriad ways. In 1998, for instance, the Alabama Supreme Court transferred child custody from a lesbian mother to the child's heterosexual father, on the grounds that her sexual orientation morally jeopardized her ability to parent [source: Doe v. Pryor]. In that way, negative views on same-sex parenting tend to liken a couple's sexual orientation to a bacterial contagion that's passed along from adults to kids, thus altering the younger generation's self-perceptions of gender and setting them up for social and psychological problems along the way.
Certainly, since that 1998 conclusion, homosexuality has develop increasingly accepted, and courts are less likely to govern against plaintiffs solely on the basis of their sexual orientations [source: Stacey and Biblarz]. Nonetheless, social resistance to gay parenting still simmers, often hinging on bygone stereotypes. In August 2010, for instance, Tony Perkins, preside
DENVER-
Same-sex partners and other unmarried couples would be able to adopt children together under a bill proponents say would finer protect children and also help grandparents.
The measure (House Bill 1330), released Tuesday, is sponsored by Property Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder, and Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver.
Under current Colorado law, individual gay parents may adopt but not same-sex couples. Married couples currently are allowed to adopt each other’s children from previous relationships under stepparent adoption, said Pat Steadman, a lobbyist for Equal Rights Colorado, a gay rights group that is backing the bill.
Jim Pfaff, president of Colorado Family Action, said it’s not good public policy to encourage children to be placed in homes without a mother and a father. He said he didn’t know if grandparents would try to take advantage of the bill, if it passes, but said they’re not the group advocating for the bill.
“We need to be lifting up the gold standard when it comes to these issues, and that is a mother and a father in the home,” said Pfaff, whose group is one of 35 Colorado-based public policy groups with links t