Last LGBT Parenting Roundup of the Year
Filed by: Dana Rudolph
December 31, 2008 7:00 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2008/12/last_lgbt_parenting_roundup_of_the_year.php (http://www.bilerico.com/2008/12/last_lgbt_parenting_roundup_of_the_year.php)
For those of you still out there and reading pre-holiday, here's a quick roundup of LGBT parenting news to hold you for a few days:
* President Bush—yes, that's right—signed the Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WRERA), making it mandatory for businesses to roll over retirement benefits to a same-sex partner in the event of the employee's death. This means same-sex couples, just like opposite-sex married couples, will automatically avoid tax penalties on those benefits. (My suspicion? Bush isn't bothering to read anything that crosses his desk these days. Still, we'll take it. This could have a significant impact on some couples' financial security.)
* Could Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's appointment of ultra-conservatives to the state's Commission on Marriage and Family mean an attempt to ban adoption by same-sex couples in the state? Appointees include Tony Perkins, who heads the Family Research Council, clergy from conservative Christian denominations, and the law professor who wrote the state's "covenant marriage" law. I wonder how last week's U.S. District Court ruling that the Louisiana state registrar must honor the New York adoption of a baby boy by a same-sex couple will affect matters.