TOP 100 NEWS SITES
| |||
|
| |||
| |||
|
| |||
| Solo flight for Virgin spaceship Virgin Galactic's suborbital spaceship, Enterprise, makes its first solo test flight, gliding to a runway after being dropped from an altitude of 45,000ft (13,700m). bbc.co.uk |
Bernanke signals economic action US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke opens the way to a new round of quantitative easing in a speech. bbc.co.uk |
Her Tale Will Go On: Titanic Survivor's Story Sold at Auction The ship of dreams (and nightmares), has been brought back to life through one survivor's story feedproxy.google.com |
It's time more gay men became dads | Gary Nunn There's never been a better, or easier, time to do it. So why do gay men remain reluctant to start families?There's never been a better time for gay men to start a family in Britain. The law is now on their side. And recent Cambridge University research for Stonewall shows children with same-sex parents enjoy the same quality of upbringing as those from other families.Slowly but surely, prejudices around gay men raising children are being disproven. But just 60 of the 3,200 children who were adopted in England in the year ending 21 March were adopted by male same-sex couples – less than 2%. Still, this is progress – the figure is up from 30 children adopted by gay male couples in 2007.Around 4,000 children are waiting to be adopted in the UK at any one time. Gay men are a group who may have previously written off the prospect of having children and, if more were persuaded to put themselves forward, could help drive down this figure. So why aren't more men signing up to be gay dads?First, not everyone knows the law has changed. Same-sex couples have been able to adopt jointly in England and Wales since December 2005 and in Scotland since September 2009. The sheer momentum of legal changes around gay equality in the last decade has meant that lesbian, gay and bisexual people have often focused on the changes that most immediately affect them – not being sacked from their jobs for being gay for example (2003), fully equal legal recognition of their relationships (2005) or being able to have a civil partnership ceremony in their place of worship (expected this year for those religions who opt in).Of course, gay men often play an important part in their families as brothers, sons, uncles, nephews, godfathers and babysitters. But having children is a big decision that requires a lot of reflection for gay couples – including legitimate concerns that their children may experience homophobic bullying in schools.Stonewall's Different Families research on children with same-sex parents, published earlier this year, shows that this is even happening in primary schools. Sian, aged nine, told researchers she can feel down about other kids' comments: "I wish that people didn't be rude about gay people." That said, anyone who feels slightly put off by this just needs to listen to the interview I did with Jess, 17, whose dad is gay. She couldn't be prouder of him and told me: "Every girl wants a gay best friend, but mine is my dad, too."There's another, broader reason I'd suggest to explain why gay men haven't rushed to start families. People have historically become nervous where gay men and children are concerned – the notoriously homophobic section 28 sprang from an innocuous book called Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin.The prejudices around gay men being untrustworthy with children range from the seriously offensive (gay men are secretly paedophiles) to the frivolously stereotypical (gay men would rather spend their pink pound on parties, Marc Jacobs and the gym than children). Then there are all the negative stereotypes in between: that gay men are all promiscuous (a stubborn myth, recently disproven) and unable to offer a stable family home because their relationships are less enduring than others; that gay men only want children as an accessory to their "designer" life, making them incapable of considering the long-term consequences; that two men can't be trusted to raise a child because a maternal figure in the family home is essential to a child's wellbeing (I've disproven that one myself.) It's no wonder many gay men have been put off the family question until now; with all these misconceptions around, it's difficult not to absorb some of them.Support is at hand. Stonewall has just launched a guide for gay dads – the first specifically aimed at them – which gives practical advice and guidance for gay men considering starting a family. This is the brother publication to Pregnant Pause – Stonewall's guide for lesbians on how to get pregnant, released earlier this year.Adoption isn't the only way to be a gay dad, of course. The guide for gay dads takes you through all your options, including co-parenting, surrogacy, sperm donation and fostering. It includes a handy glossary and spells out all the recent legal changes in plain English to make the prospect far less scary. This is timed to coincide with the Alternative Families Show today – the first event of its kind, which aims to demystify the process of becoming a parent for the gay community. So gay men need no longer fear starting their own families.In 21st-century Britain, Jenny really can live with Eric and Martin – and we now know Jenny is likely grow into a happy, well-developed person in a loving, supportive family; something every child deserves.Gay rightsParents and parentingFamilyAdoptionChildrenFosteringSocial careGary Nunnguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
The Old Men on the Mountains As the nature of the downhill event in skiing changes, the Games' favorites are schussing seniors. online.wsj.com |