Powerful Open Letter to the Supreme Court from a Gay Couple with Three Adopted Kids: VIDEO

Jack Montgomery and his husband Kelly have three adopted kids from D.C.'s foster care system. In a powerful letter and video, he begs the Supreme Court to do the right thing on Prop 8 and DOMA.

Watch the video, AFTER THE JUMP...

And read along, below:

Dear Justice Scalia as well as your distinguished peers serving on the Supreme Court,

First let me thank you for hearing the historic cases this week on California's Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). My husband, Kelly Vielmo, and I adopted three beautiful siblings from DC's foster care system last year. Being an inter-racial, same-sex family we are used to being conspicuous and sometimes the center of attention on a local level depending on where we happen to be. With the cases being heard in the Supreme Court this week our family is now on debate at the national level. With that said I am following with interest your ruling on these cases. One comment that stuck with me was the speculation of potential "deleterious" effects of kids having same-sex parents. After I looked up deleterious (adj. causing harm or damage) I had to reflect on the harm and damage that has been done to my children. I know that you are listening to these cases from a nationally-scaled legal point of view, but the intent of this letter is to offer you the lens and point of view of one individual family your rulings will affect.

Children who are placed in the care of foster systems throughout this nation have suffered from either the neglect or the abuse of their biological families. For all intents and purposes, we will call this deleterious parenting. Sadly my children were born into these circumstances. They further had statistics against them. The adoption rates of both African American children and sibling pairs (not to mention trios) are greatly reduced. When my husband and I looked at our options for growing our family, DC's Child and Family Services Administration seemed to be our natural choice. We knew we wanted siblings, had no racial preference for our children, and living in the District were able to help our local community at the same time.

I do not want to go into too much detail of my childrens' history for the sake of their privacy. When our children arrived we welcomed a five-year-old who was not potty trained, a two-year-old who was withdrawn, and an almost two-year-old who never learned to walk. Please understand that there were no biological impediments to the development of these children. Their situation was entirely brought on by deleterious parenting. Since their arrival our children quickly graduated from the need of any additional services to include physical, speech, and play therapy. They are now happy and active members of their community.

I do not tell you these facts to paint ourselves as the saviors of these children. These children have done more for us than we have for them. Having the extraordinary privilege of watching these childrens' souls grow and thrive despite the obstacles placed before them has been the lesson of our lives. I tell this story to establish myself as an expert witness to the effects of deleterious parenting. As you prepare your response on Proposition 8 and DOMA you now have the opportunity to decide what further obstacles will face these children. What are the deleterious effects your decision will have on my children? What states within our nation can these children live in and still declare their family legal? Next year during tax season will their parents have to hire a CPA to determine who and how to list the children as dependents? When the first of their parents passes away will their family's assets and property be preserved and passed between parents as a married family or be treated as legal strangers?

I am not naive enough to think that any verdict of your court will change the opinions or hearts of the individuals we encounter on a daily basis. I accept that the stares our family receives walking down the street on a daily basis elicits both judgment and inspiration. What I do not accept is that the United States of America is willing to devalue my childrens' family more than others and have a separate grouping of laws and benefits. I pray that as you rule on these cases that you keep Cardel (6), Raine (4), and Ravyn (3) in your hearts and do all in your power to keep deleterious obstacles from their lives.

Respectfully Yours,
Jack Montgomery

Watch the video, AFTER THE JUMP...

Adopted Son of Gay Dads Writes Powerful Letter on Marriage Equality to SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts: VIDEO

Daniel, the 12-year-old son of the Leffew Family in Northern California (you may have seen some of their videos online), wrote a powerful letter to Chief Justice Roberts about the Prop 8 and DOMA cases, after reading that Roberts has two adopted children of his own.

Watch Daneil read his letter, AFTER THE JUMP...

Last week National Organization for Marriage Chairman John Eastman smeared Justice Roberts and his family by calling adopted children "second-best".

Dutch Lesbian Couple Hides As Foster Son's Turkish Parents Demand Return

There may be an international incident brewing in The Hague, Netherlands, where a lesbian couple raising a Turkish foster son have gone into hiding to avoid returning the son to the biological parents from whose care he was ordered removed (pictured).

According to NPR, the 9 year-old boy, Yunus, was a baby living in The Netherlands with his Turkey-born parents when child services removed him from their care. Two other children were also meant to be removed but the parents took them back to Turkey before child services could intervene.

Now, as Turkish politicians rally against the concept of same-sex parents raising Muslim children, Yunus' parents are calling for his return, a call that comes just as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan prepares for an official trip to The Netherlands.

While hardliners back home want Erdogan to fight for Yunus' return, his government doesn't really want to get involved, particularly because Yunus' placement with the couple was an official child service's decision. From NPR:

Lodewijk Asscher, the Dutch vice prime minister, told reporters Friday that the issue is an internal Dutch matter and that political interference from Turkey is "inappropriate."

Child social services in The Hague said there was no specific threat against Yunus or his foster parents, but he has been kept home from school as a precaution since the interview aired.

The Hague Youth Services Agency has decided it is better for Yunus and his foster parents "to stay at another address for a time, partly in connection with the visit of the prime minister next week," spokeswoman Tanja van Dijk said in a telephone interview with national broadcaster NOS. "For safety, and also because of the quiet that both Yunus and his foster parents of course now need."

Asscher also praised the lesbian couple for raising a child that was "in danger" in his biological parents' care. "People who are willing to take care of somebody else's child deserve our admiration," he said.

Federal Judge Could Overturn Michigan's Ban on Same-Sex Marriage This Thursday: VIDEOS

Back in September I posted about April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, a Detroit couple suing the state of Michigan over its ban on gay adoption, who expanded their lawsuit to take on the state's marriage amendment.

Motions which could be decisive on the matter are scheduled for March 7, 2013 at 9:00 a.m. at Wayne State University Law School, located at 471 W. Palmer Ave, Detroit Michigan, according to the couple's attorney Dana Nessel of Nessel and Kessel Law. Judge Friedman recently ordered a venue change to accommodate the public interest in the outcome.

Via press release:

The couple, who has been in a committed relationship for over a decade, has three special-needs children. DeBoer, a neo-natal intensive care nurse, and Rowse, an emergency room nurse, became licensed as a couple to be foster parents. Within a year and a half, they welcomed three newborns who had been abandoned or surrendered at birth. The children faced long-term physical and mental impairments due to prematurity, little or no prenatal care, maternal drug use, and other complications.

DeBoer and Rowse's desire to jointly adopt all three children would establish each parent's legal claim and relationship to their children. Currently one has adopted two of the children and the other has adopted one. April and Jayne asserted that the Michigan Adoption Code, which prohibits joint adoption for their kids and thousands of other children in households like theirs across the state, violates their right to Equal Protection under the United States Constitution.

"Jayne and I love our children as deeply as any other parent loves their kids," said DeBoer. "We just want our children to have the same protections all other children have, so that our kids know they can never be taken from either of us."

Attorneys Dana Nessel (Nessel & Kessel Law) and Carole Stanyar (The Law Offices of Carole Stanyar) filed a complaint on behalf of April, Jayne, and their children against the State of Michigan in January of 2012, however, at the behest of Judge Bernard Friedman, the pleadings were amended to challenge the same-sex marriage ban, significantly expanding the scope of the case.

Michigan's Marriage Amendment, approved by voters in 2004, prohibits gays and lesbians from a legal marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships.

"As one of the most draconian bans in the nation, the amendment effectively prohibits any type of legal recognition or benefits for same-sex couples in Michigan," said Nessel. "Ironically, the State of Michigan found these women good enough to put their blood, sweat, and tears into raising these children together as foster parents. To now deny them the opportunity to both become legal parents to the children they love, and who are the only parents they have ever known, is totally irrational, and serves no legitimate purpose."

Watch the press conference held by the couple and their attorneys in September, as well as a news report broadcast a week before they decided to expand their lawsuit, AFTER THE JUMP...

German High Court Takes 'Historic' Step to Strengthen Adoption Rights for Gay Couples

Germany's top court made a historic ruling on Tuesday, the AP reports:

The Federal Constitutional Court ruled that one member of a civil partnership should be able to adopt the partner’s stepchild or adopted child. Until now, they could only adopt a partner’s biological child.

Deutsche Welle adds:

It ruled that same-sex couples could provide for a child as well as couples in a traditional marriage.

"In marriage as in a civil partnership, adoption provides the child with legal security and material advantages in terms of care, support and inheritance law," presiding judge Ferdinand Kirchof told the court.

The ruling followed a legal challenge from a woman who was forbidden from adopting a Bulgarian-born child whom her female partner had adopted.

Tuesday's decision does not alter legislation, however, which forbids same-sex couples jointly adopting a child. They may still only adopt the same child on an individual basis.

Another Look At The Anti-Gay 'Fatherless Deviant' Yarn

Garth McVicar is unyielding in his claim that same-sex marriage leads to violent crime. Though most people, including MPs, laughed at the New Zealand anti-gay activist's outrageous claim - and his various misspellings - McVicar this weekend dedicated himself anew to convincing people he's on the right track, and that gay nuptials are a detour to depravity.

In an interview with The New Zealand Herald, McVicar doubled down, saying, "If you look at the court stats, most of the crime that has been committed has been committed by fatherless kids." He also warned that gay adoption would have a similar effect, adding, "That's where it's heading - this is just another step in that politically correct journey that we've been on as a country."

Asked if two gay men, two dads, adopting would cancel out the detrimental effects, McCivar, not surprisingly, said no. Kids need a mother, as well. That's the basic formula for almost all anti-gay marriage movements. Opposition to gays raising kids is one of the main reasons the anti-marriage equality movement in France has such widespread and varied support. In France, in New Zealand and the world over, the conservative refrain remains largely the same: kids need both a mom and a dad, not two moms and not two dads. And, yes, this math also considers a single mother is less than, too.

And that's one of the subtexts that's often unexplored in these conservative arguments: the idea that a woman is not sufficient enough to raise a child alone. That women in general are not equal to men, that their power is only activated when complemented by a man's. Even then the woman's abilities are only suited for cooking, cleaning and birthing. Rational people living in this time period know that's not the case. Even still, it's this old, debunked theory that laid the seed for its more contemporary odious offshoot, the "no two dads; no two moms" meme.

When McVicar and his allies are attacking gay couples, they're also implicitly attacking women. It's hard, tiring - and tiresome - work. And yet most of the right wingers like McVicar still find time, and opportunity, to fulfill what they call their main goal: procreation. Where's Lysistrata when you need her?