News: London Cloud, Rock Hudson, United Airlines, Annise Parker

Signorile on Congress and Obama's LGBT agenda: Why is the "low-hanging fruit" still hanging? And here's the checklist.

Architectural "cloud" proposed in London.

America's Next Top Model's Miss J is the father of a 7-year-old boy: "A French lesbian had asked if we would be sperm donors. "So we thought, 'OK, you want me to do you?' And she was like, 'Ooooh, I'm not that talented.' So I said, 'Okay fine.' So we did a little test tube."

D.C. Council committee advances marriage equality bill: "A DC Council Committee voted 4 to 1 this afternoon to send a bill legalizing same-sex marriage to the full council for debate. Council member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and Judiciary, said the legislation was 'both simple and monumental.' With the committee vote, the full council will take up the bill in early December. It is expected to easily pass."

Virginia lawmaker to introduce legislation extending protections to state workers who are gay or lesbian.

Celine Dion "no longer pregnant".

Opposition party in Australia drafts bill to keep single mothers and gay couples from accessing surrogacy: "Under the laws...introduced, only married and defacto heterosexual couples who have been together for at least two years would legally be able to have a child by surrogate."

First look at The Addams Family Musical.

American researchers "rebuild" sexual organs on rabbits, believe procedure could work on men: "Male rabbits given the implants attempted to mate within one minute of being introduced to a female partner, and 83 per cent succeeded."

REPORT: Rock Hudson's lover Marc Christian has died.

Goran Visnjic to star as Christopher Plummer's boyfriend in the Mike Mills film Beginners: "It’s a Gay-December romance for the ages!"

Houston mayoral candidate Annise Parker gets endorsement from opponent: “One candidate stands out with a 12-year proven track record of public service, particularly in terms of efficient, transparent government, the quality of life in our neighborhoods, and fiscal responsibility, especially important in these difficult economic times."

Ashleigh and Jakob were definitely the best part of So You Think You Can Dance last night.

Lady Gaga gossips about Gossip Girl.

Some photos by Dav.d Daniels from the Mormon testimony at the Salt Lake City LGBT ordinance hearings.

United Airlines pilot arrested for intoxication before boarding a flight full of passengers at Heathrow.

FireDogLake blogger Jane Hamsher talks about the DNC donor boycott: "If you're suppressing your base, and the other side is revving up theirs, and midterm elections are all about turning out the base, I sort of question what their strategy is here."

Ontario gym owner in transgender bathroom legal battle: "A fitness club owner in southwestern Ontario said Tuesday he has wasted tens of thousands of dollars fighting a legal battle with a transgender woman over which washrooms she should use, only to have the case thrown out by the Ontario Human Rights Commission."

Montana High Court Upholds Historic Same-Sex Parent Custody Ruling

Montana's Supreme Court yesterday upheld a ruling by a Missoula, Montana district court judge last October, awarding custody rights to Michelle Kulstad. Kulstad had raised two kids with her partner Barbara Maniaci for nearly a decade. The kids were legally adopted by Maniaci, who sought sole custody when the couple split.

The Flathead Beacon reports: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday backed District Judge Ed McLean's ruling last year that granted Michelle Kulstad joint custody of the two children — a 9-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl. The children were adopted by Kulstad's former partner, Barbara Maniaci, in 2001 and 2004. State law does not allow both members of a same-sex partnership to adopt. After the relationship ended, Kulstad filed in January 2007 to receive parenting rights. Maniaci, who is now married to a man, filed a motion to dismiss Kulstad's petition."

Justice James Nelson addressed anti-gay discrimination "in the strongest of language," reports The Missoulian:

"In his specially concurring decision, Nelson denounced discrimination against gays and lesbians as 'bigotry' and called it 'a prevalent societal cancer grounded in bigotry and hate.' ... 'I remain absolutely convinced ... that homosexuals are entitled to enjoy precisely the same civil and natural rights as heterosexuals, as a matter of constitutional law,' he wrote. Nelson sided with the 6-1 majority that upheld a ruling giving parental rights to a Missoula woman who had been in a 10-year lesbian relationship that included two children legally adopted by the other woman in the partnership. The other woman had left the relationship and married a man, and did not want to grant parental rights to her former lesbian partner. The court ruled that the former partner has a 'parental interest' in the children and a right to joint custody. Nelson said the case shows that until the courts recognize homosexuals as 'equal participants with heterosexuals in our society ... with exactly the same civil and natural rights, lesbian and gay citizens will continue to suffer homophobic discrimination.' ... 'Regrettably, this sort of discrimination is both socially acceptable and politically popular,' he wrote."

More from the Flathead Beacon: "Justice James Nelson concurred with the decision, but added: 'Maniaci and her defense team attempt to avoid the one issue that makes this case uniquely important — the elephant in the room: whether homosexuals in an intimate domestic relationship each have the right to parent the children they mutually agree that one party will adopt (or, presumably, conceive.) The District Court and this Court have properly answered that question in the affirmative...Sadly, however, this case represents yet another instance in which fellow Montanans, who happen to be lesbian or gay, are forced to battle for their fundamental rights to love who they want, to form intimate associations, to form family relationships, and to have and raise children — all elemental, natural rights that are accorded, presumptively and without thought or hesitation, to heterosexuals."

NYT: Gay Couples Pay Steep Price for Inequality Over a Lifetime

It took two months and the simulation of more than 900 tax returns (see methodology here) for Tara Siegel Bernard and Ron Lieber to crunch the numbers for an article in the NYT which calculates the extra expenses a hypothetical same-sex couple would face over the course of a lifetime compared with their hypothetical heterosexual counterparts.

"Our goal was to create a hypothetical gay couple whose situation would be similar to a heterosexual couple’s. So we gave the couple two children and assumed that one partner would stay home for five years to take care of them. We also considered the taxes in the three states that have the highest estimated gay populations — New York, California and Florida. We gave our couple an income of $140,000, which is about the average income in those three states for unmarried same-sex partners who are college-educated, 30 to 40 years old and raising children under the age of 18. Here is what we came up with. In our worst case, the couple’s lifetime cost of being gay was $467,562. But the number fell to $41,196 in the best case for a couple with significantly better health insurance, plus lower taxes and other costs."

Also: "Nearly all the extra costs that gay couples face would be erased if the federal government legalized same-sex marriage. "

The High Price of Being a Gay Couple [nyt]

'And Tango Makes Three' Authors Have Baby of Their Own

Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, the authors behind the gay penguin children's book And Tango Makes Three, now have their own child, City Room reports:

"In February, the gay couple, who live in the West Village, had their first child. The baby, Gemma Parnell-Richardson, was born to a surrogate mother, the egg fertilized by sperm from one of the men. (Which one was left to chance.)...Gemma was born in Massachusetts because the state allows both fathers’ names on the birth certificate without an adoption process. (In addition, New York State does not allow women to be paid to be surrogate mothers.)"

According to the American Library Association, more attempts were made (by right-wingers angry with the book's message about successful gay parents) to remove And Tango Makes Three from library shelves in 2006, 2007, and 2008 than any other book.

And Tango Makes Three tells the story of how Roy and Silo, in an attempt to raise a child of their own, try in vain to sit on a stone so it will hatch. When zookeepers notice this, they give the two gay penguins an egg from another mother that has no bird to care for it. Roy and Silo then take turns sitting on the egg until they have a chick. The story is true and based on two chinstrap penguins at the Central Park Zoo in Manhattan.

City Room writes: "On Saturday, Mr. Richardson and Mr. Parnell read their book in Chicago for Banned Books Week, an annual event the association sponsors to draw attention to issues of intellectual freedom. 'Unlike gays in the military, gays at the altar, the government is squarely behind us this time; the Constitution is squarely behind us,' Mr. Richardson said. This year, the birth of Gemma gave their annual reading special resonance, the men said. 'Two plucky characters want something that seems totally out of reach,' Mr. Richardson said. 'They try and try and try and ultimately they succeed.'"

Congrats guys!

Lesbian Denied Fertility Treatment Because She is Gay Settles Suit

Guadalupe Benitez, a lesbian who was denied fertility treatments because of her sexual orientation, has settled a lawsuit against Dr. Douglas Fenton and Dr. Christine Brody at North Coast Womens Care in Vista, California:

"Benitez alleged that the doctors told her they would not inseminate her because their religious convictions — they are Christians — prohibited them from doing the procedure for a lesbian couple. Benitez went to another doctor, got pregnant and had a child with her partner, Joanne Clark. The boy is now 7. The couple also have 4-year-old twins. But she sued the doctors and clinic, arguing that the state's civil rights laws do not allow doctors to discriminate against patients based on their religious beliefs. A state appeals court in San Diego ruled in 2006 in favor of the doctors. But in August 2008, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously for Benitez, saying that religious-liberty claims cannot excuse illegal discrimination. Both the doctors and the couple released a joint statement in which the doctors said they were sorry that Benitez and Clark felt they were being treated differently because of their sexual orientation. The doctors said they want “all of their patients, including those who are lesbian and gay, to feel welcome and accepted in their medical practice, and are committed to treating all of their patients with equal dignity and respect in the context of the highest quality of medical care.”

Obama Includes Same-Sex Parents in Family Day Proclamation

President Obama today issued a proclamation recognizing September 28 as Family Day, in recognition of the nation's families, including those with same-sex parents.

The first paragraph:

"Our family provides one of the strongest influences on our lives. American families from every walk of life have taught us time and again that children raised in loving, caring homes have the ability to reject negative behaviors and reach their highest potential. Whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple, or a guardian, families encourage us to do our best and enable us to accomplish great things. Today, our children are confronting issues of drug and alcohol use with astonishing regularity. On Family Day, we honor the dedication of parents, commend the achievements of their children, and celebrate the contributions our Nation's families have made to combat substance abuse among young people."

Read the full proclamation, AFTER THE JUMP...