Saturday, December 3, 2011
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Queer Families = Healthy Families: LGBT Parenting Conference
Saturday, October 11th
9:00 AM - 5:30 PM
1800 Market Street @ Octavia Blvd
San Francisco
Conference Key Features
- Welcome address by Assemblyman Mark Leno
- Keynote Speaker Charlotte Patterson, Ph.D., premier researcher on LGBT families
- Lunch Panel on “Queer Families: Past, Present and Future” including Shannon Minter,NCLR Chief Legal Counsel for the Marriage lawsuit at the State Supreme Court
- Screening of “It’s STILL Elementary,” a film by GroundSpark and Debra Chasnoff, Academy Award winner and producer of “It's Elementary”
- Break-out Workshops on Cutting Edge Topics (details below)
Registration Information
- Online: www.gaylesta.org/event_registration.php
- $125 at the door
- $115 current Gaylesta members
- Scholarships available for students and low income community members.
- Continental breakfast and box lunch provided
- Childcare provided (reserve in advance)
CEU Credit Information -
6 CEUs available for MFTs, LCSWs and Psychologists - PhD accreditation pending
WORKSHOPS & PANELS
Online conference information: www.gaylesta.org/events.html
Alternative Dispute Resolution in LGBT Divorce: The Legal, Social, and Psychological Dynamics of Separation in the LGBT Community
Presenters: Nina Raff, LCSW and Paul Thorndal, Esq.
Explores the legal, social, and psychological dynamics of divorce in the LGBT community, and the role of various forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) available to address those dynamics.
Attachment Issues in Adoption with Same Gendered Parents.
Presenter: Regina Marshall, PhD
Explores the impact adoption has on the parent/child dyad, the couple and the family through the lens of attachment theory.
The Bisexual Parent
Presenters: Chris Weipert, MFT and Annie Schussler, MFT
Explores the complexities of integrating one's bisexual identity with the role of being a parent. We will look at the intersection of these identities from both personal and clinical perspectives.
Conceiving Children: A Panel of Experts Discusses Assisted Insemination.
Presenters: Alice Ruby, MPH, MPPM (The Sperm Bank of California), Katherine Hsiao, MD (Lesbian Health Research Center, UCSF), Kristin Kali, LM CPM (Maia Midwifery), Sherron Mills, NP (Pacific Reproductive Services)
Will present information on choosing and interacting with sperm banks, negotiating known donor relationships, single parenting, fertility awareness and insemination strategizing and fertility challenges.
Respecting the Soul: LGBTQ African American Kinship and Mental Health
Presenter: Erica Britton, PsyD
Includes the history of African American lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer folks in the Bay Area, the history of African American LGBTQ folks in general, intra-cultural attitudes/beliefs, research findings, and assessment/intervention with the African American Queer family.
Trans Parenting: Clearing the Path to Coming Out
Presenters: Lisette R. Lahana, LCSW and Rachel Hollowgrass
Explores how transgendered and transsexual parents can give kids information based on their maturity level, the transition timeline as well as family, cultural and religious norms.
PM Workshops 2:15 PM - 3:30 PM
After the Rainbow: Couples Issues for Queer Parents
Presenter: Betsy Kassoff, PhD
Explores how the variables of biological and non-biological parenting status, gender transitions, gender “deviations” on the part of either children or parents, trans-racial adoption, nontraditional divorce, relationships of donors and other issues of queer parents affect their intimate relationships.
Presenters: Charles Spiegel, Esq, Martha Rynberg (PACT), Charles Lerner (Family Builders), and Michelle Nobriga (law offices of Adams and Romer)
An overview of the some of most common adoption options available to the LGBT community (private, agency and fost/adopt) as well as a look at some of the issues and challenges of adoption, especially in creating transracial families.
School Advocacy Panel
Presenters: Aimee Fisher (Our Family Coalition) and Christy Chung (GroundSpark) "You're a sissy!"
"That's so gay!" Many students hear anti-gay taunts and are teased on a regular basis for not conforming to gender stereotypes or for having same-sex parents. It is critical to know how to work with your children and the adults in their school to address these incidents when they happen, and more importantly, prevent them from happening in the first place.
Surviving the Emotional Roller Coaster: Assisting Queer Women Through Insemination
Presenters: Laura Goldberger, MFT and Kristin Kali, LM CPM (Maia Midwifery)
Delves into the emotional and relational issues for lesbians, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals during this highly stressful process: partner issues, gender issues, financial and emotional challenges, fertility concerns and other stressors.
Presenter: Cheryl Deaner, MFT
Families of focus in this workshop include those who generally do not fit the “two parents living together” model. Healthy communication and good boundaries between parental systems will be discussed along with the challenges of different parenting styles.
For more information contact Dino DiDonato, (415) 431-4366 or gayfamilies@gaylesta.org
Conference Sponsoring Organizations:
Gaylesta the LGBTQ Psychotherapists Association, The San Francisco LGBT Community Center and Our Family Coalition Conference Co-Sponsors: New Leaf Services for Our Community, National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE); Banner Sponsor and Luncheon Host: RBC Wealth Management; Sponsors for Keynote Speaker: Ambassador James Hormel and The Orchard Garden Hotel
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Israeli Court Hears Lesbian In Vitro Case
I have often wondered about this situation myself...
If a lesbian couple decides to have a child, where one woman supplies the egg, the other woman bares the child and the sperm is from an anonymous doner, then do both women become the child's legal parents? In Israel this is exactly what the courts are deciding.
Israeli courts have already ruled that same-sex couples can jointly adopt, however, this is the first time that two women in a committed relationship have been physically involved in the birth of a baby, at least in the Israeli court system.
The women, whose names are protected under Israeli law because a child is involved, went to court after the government refused to register them as co-mothers.
Their lawyer argues that both the women are the baby's biological mothers, and that recognizing both would be for the good of the child.
Attorney Na’ma Tzoref also told the court that the women had received the Health Ministry’s approval for the in vitro process.
But Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz argues that because the sperm came from a third party, the woman who supplied the egg for the baby, now ten months old, must adopt him.
"Before approving the request for artificial insemination, the Health Ministry made it clear that the woman who donated the egg would not [automatically] be considered the child's mother and that if she wanted to be, she would have to adopt him," Manzur said.
Manzur last month said the government would recognize same-sex co-parents through the adoption process. The decision followed a ruling last December by the Supreme Court that the government must recognize foreign adoptions by same-sex parents and treat both parents as equal.
In Manzur's objection in this case he called the in vitro process the women used an end run around the adoption process.
The court has not said when it will issue a ruling.
Gays and lesbians in Israel have been steadily gaining civil rights since the government overturned the law against sodomy in 1988.
There have been no restrictions on gays serving in the military since 1993. In 2000, the age of consent for gays was lowered to 16, to match the legal age for consensual sex for heterosexuals.
Gay couples are given most federal rights in Israel, although gay marriages (which are only religious marriages in Israel) are not permitted.
News found on 365Gay.com
