HRC Blog

In a major victory for lesbian and gay Floridians, the State’s intermediate Court of Appeals ruled in Florida Dept. of Children and Families v. In re: Matter of Adoption of X.X.G. and N.R.G. that Florida’s statute excluding homosexuals from adopting was unconstitutional under the Florida Constitution.

When I was in the second grade, my classmate Brian told me my parents were lesbians. I knew that couldn't be true-- he said the word with such negativity, with such distaste: lesbian. I told him that my moms were not lesbians! I wasn't quite sure what a lesbian was, but I knew that my caring parents could not be anything that a classmate made sound so ugly. For some reason the accusation stuck with me.

To gain some more perspective on the need for and the impact of Welcoming Schools, I recently had a conversation with Matt Riley of the New Bedford, Mass. school district where we have been piloting Welcoming Schools for three years. Now, when I tell someone from Massachusetts that New Bedford was one of the first districts identified to pilot Welcoming Schools, I often get a quizzical look - a look reads, “New Bedford? Why not Boston, Cambridge or some suburb with a reputation for liberal politics?

This is the first post in our Welcoming Schools “Back to School” blog series. Welcoming Schools, a project of the HRC Foundation, offers administrators, educators and parents/guardians the tools they need to ensure their elementary schools welcome all students and families. With LGBT-inclusive resources on embracing family diversity, avoiding gender stereotyping and ending bullying and name-calling, Welcoming Schools is a first-of-its-kind approach to these topics for K-5 learning environments.

The following post is a guest post from David Fishback, Advocacy Chair for the Metro DC Chapter of PFLAG, with opening comments from HRC’s Family Project Director, Ellen Kahn: As voters across the U.S. prepare to vote in primary elections next week, and coverage of the critically important November mid-term elections permeates every news channel, a reminder about the importance of school board elections to our community is timely. LGBT voters and our allies have a vested interest in the outcomes of school board elections, whether or not you are parents or have any connection to you local public schools.