LGBTQ news and entertainment
Some news stories for you as we head into the week:
• Extra: Robbie G.K. (lead photo) says he’s hopeful Season 2 of the gay hockey drama Heated Rivalry will include a destination wedding for his character Kip and François Arnaud’s Scott. Continue reading “Robbie G.K. On Season 2 Of ‘Heated Rivalry’ + More News”
Some news items you might have missed: • LGBTQ Nation: The prominent LGBTQ+ rights organization Egale Canada will boycott events in the U.S. in protest of the Trump administration’s continued assault on the transgender community. Continue reading “Canadian LGBTQ Rights Group Will Boycott U.S. Events + More News”
In this week’s headlines: The United Methodist Church has reversed its ban on gay clergy. Plus… • Out country music artist Chris Housman drops his oh-so-romantic new single and music video “Guilty As Sin.” Continue reading “Podcast: United Methodist Church, Country Music Artist Chris Housman + More”
Some news items you might have missed: • The Advocate: President Joe Biden’s administration has moved to protect LGBTQ+ and intersex children in foster care, ordering that they be placed in supportive homes. House Republicans opposed the new rule. Continue reading “New Protections For LGBTQ Foster Kids + More News”
Can you believe this? House Republicans are opposing a new rule that requires child welfare agencies to place LGBTQ children in homes that are “free of hostility, mistreatment, or abuse” based on the child’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression. Continue reading “House Republicans Oppose Protections For LGBTQ Foster Kids”
(stock photo via Depositphotos)
The adoption agency case (Fulton v. City of Philadelphia) arose after the city of Philadelphia learned in 2018 that Catholic Social Services, a foster care services provider affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, would not certify same-sex couples as suitable parents for children in the city’s foster care system.
After Philadelphia learned about CSS’ policy, the city stopped referring the group new children, citing a city law prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination, and updated its 2019 contract with foster care services providers to explicitly forbid such discrimination against potential parents.
Catholic Social Services argues that Philadelphia’s exclusion of it from the city’s foster care system amounts to religious discrimination, in violation of the First Amendment’s protections for religious exercise.
This case is the first to come before newly-confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Barrett’s history of anti-LGBTQ views were raised during her Senate confirmation hearings last month.
Erika Harold, a former Miss America and currently the frontrunner in the GOP nomination for Illinois Attorney General, once told Miss Illinois pageant officials that she would choose to place a foster child in the home of a child abuser rather than in the home of a loving gay couple.
It will not surprise you to learn Ms. Harold has no recollection of the “alleged exchange.”
From the local NBC affiliate:
NBC 5 has spoken to three people, who all played a role in that Miss Illinois pageant, with direct knowledge of the exchange. They were present when Harold responded to the question.
One of the pageant officials said: “I remember it because it was so shocking. She took some time to answer it. And that drew people in. It stopped the room.”
That pageant official said: “It said a lot about her, she spoke about reading the Bible daily and said her beliefs could not subject a child to the gay lifestyle.”
Harold’s spokesman originally told NBC 5 Harold did not recall this interview since it was nearly 20 years ago. In a second phone call, the spokesman said, “I have a real problem with this story, less than two weeks before the election, unnamed sources are going to say this?”
Another source who was also present for the interview said, “I remember it like it was yesterday. It was shocking.”
Harold’s campaign released a statement to NBC 5 after repeated requests:
“Voters should first know that NBC Chicago has chosen to air an unverified story from anonymous sources twelve days before an election about an alleged event that supposedly occurred nearly two decades ago when Erika was 20 years old. Erika does not recall the alleged exchange, but Erika certainly support[s] same-sex adoption and foster care placement.”
One of the Miss Illinois pageant officials from the 2000 contest who spoke to NBC 5 said, “I find it literally impossible she does not remember, because it cost her the pageant, she did not even make the top 10 that year. There’s no way she does not remember.”
Current Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, also a Republican, has endorsed Harold and donated $350,000 to her campaign.
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| (photo: Steve Griffin – Salt Lake Tribune) |
It appears the Utah judge who ruled a married lesbian couple could NOT be foster parents to a nine month old baby girl is reconsidering his ruling after national outrage over the case.
Under the order issued earlier this week, 7th District Juvenile Judge Scott Johansen had given state officials until Nov. 17 to remove the child. In his ruling, Johansen said research showed that children do better in homes with heterosexual parents.
On Friday, Johansen scheduled a hearing for Dec. 4 to determine what is in the best interest of the child.
The Utah Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) on Thursday filed a petition for a stay of the order, while an attorney for the foster parents women — April Hoagland and Beckie Peirce — filed a separate petition asking the judge to reverse his own ruling.
Hoagland and Peirce, who have been married for a year and are licensed foster parents, have cared for the girl since August, as the state has moved through the legal process of terminating the parental rights of the child’s biological mother.
The couple, who are also raising Peirce’s biological children, ages 12 and 14, intend to adopt the girl and have said the child’s mother told Johansen on Tuesday she wants her daughter raised by the couple.
Even conservative Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said the judge had overstepped in his ruling:
“I expect the court and the judge to follow the law. He may not like the law, but he should follow the law. We don’t want to have activism on the bench in any way, shape or form. Laws, sometimes people don’t like, but the judge should not interject his own personal beliefs and feelings and supersede the law.”
The Human Rights Campaign has filed a formal complaint against the judge saying he violated Section 2.3 of the Utah Code of Judicial Conduct, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
April Hoagland and Beckie Peirce of Carbon County, Utah, were stunned when Judge Scott Johansen ordered they surrender the one year old foster child placed in their care.
The judge said he felt the child would be better off with a heterosexual couple based on “research” he had done. When asked for the source of that research, he refused.
Via the Advocate:
The couple, who legally wed in October 2014, have taken care of the one-year-old girl for three months and her birth mother has asked them to adopt the child. The Utah Division of Child and Family Services has been forced to find new housing for the child, but officials say they will appeal the judge’s decision.
“We love her and she loves us, and we haven’t done anything wrong,” Peirce told The Salt Lake Tribune. “And the law, as I understand it, reads that any legally married couple can foster and adopt.”
Attorneys for DCFS are currently reviewing the decision. “If we feel like [Johansen’s] decision is not best for the child,” DCFS director Brent Platt said, “and we have a recourse to appeal or change it, we’re going to do that. For us, it’s what’s best for the child.”
“Any loving couple if they are legally married, and meet the requirements, we want them to be involved,” he said.
The child’s state-appointed attorney supports the couple. The birth mother’s lawyer, who was in court with the couple when the decision was handed down, has said the mother is upset and wants her baby to stay with the couple.
The Human Rights Campaign issued this statement:
“Removing a child from a loving home simply because the parents are LGBT is outrageous, shocking, and unjust. It also flies in the face of overwhelming evidence that children being raised by same-sex parents are just as healthy and well-adjusted as those with different-sex parents. At a time when so many children in foster care need loving homes, it is sickening to think that a child would be taken from caring parents who planned to adopt.”
Democratic White House front-runner tweeted her support for the couple:
Being a good parent has nothing to do with sexual orientation—thousands of families prove that. https://t.co/xQLh25RAYR
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 12, 2015
Watch the local CBS affiliate’s report below.