WorldNetDaily: "The superintendent of the Arizona Department of Public Education says his agency will consider a refusal by the school district in Tucson to videotape its 'Raza studies' classes as evidence the district is 'deliberately' concealing its agenda . . . So the state, which starting Jan. 1 can withhold 10 percent of the district's state funding, confirmed it would cite that refusal when the dispute comes up for judicial review."

Yahoo News / The Upshot: "Many national Republicans are apparently already practicing this tactic [staying quiet on same-sex "marriage"], as a federal judge's decision to strike down California's gay marriage ban was met with relative silence from GOP leaders this month. Meanwhile the abortion debate is still raging on the state level. As of June this year, 11 states had passed laws to restrict abortion."

Forbes: "There is one surprising area where young people differ from their elders about homosexuality. Since the pollsters started asking about it in the late 1977, the number saying homosexuality is something one is born with has been growing. But today, more young people than older ones believe it is a lifestyle choice. In May 50% of 18-29 year olds told CBS News pollsters that being homosexual is something people choose to be; 47% said it was something a person couldn't change. Among those 65 and over, however, 25% said it was a choice, 55% said it was something that couldn't be changed."

CBS News: "According to American Civil Liberties Union complaint on behalf of four Woonsocket, R.I., parents, uniforms would be an added financial burden for families. Additionally, the ACLU says the uniforms won't do anything to improve the quality of education at kids' schools."

Leonard Link: "One question that immediately began buzzing around the blogosphere was whether the Obama Administration's Justice Department will appeal these rulings. Others are when will the rulings take effect, and do they have any application outside of Massachusetts? Within the past few days, some answers have begun emerging."

Lanae Erickson and Jon Cowan writing at Politico: "First, advocates must reframe the conversation . . . Marriage is about lifetime commitment, responsibilities and obligations. If we can persuade people in the middle that gay couples want to get married for those reasons — not simply to gain a list of legal rights and benefits — we’ll connect with them in a far deeper way . . . In their ads, opponents of same-sex marriage tapped into fears about children, triggering concerns about what allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry would mean for kids. If we’re going to move the middle, we need to figure out how to quell these fears, rather than ignoring or dismissing them . . . Third, we need to continue to make progress along the spectrum of relationship recognition, from domestic partnerships to civil unions to marriage."

LaCrosse Tribune: "A social conservative group filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging Wisconsin’s domestic partner registry, arguing it is a violation of the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The lawsuit filed in Dane County Circuit Court by members of Wisconsin Family Action contends the registry creates a legal status substantially similar to that of marriage."

"[S]ome researchers compare the evolution in thinking about gender to the struggle that began a generation ago for gay and lesbian rights."

The Hill: "The Pentagon plans to survey approximately 150,000 military spouses about the military's 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy. In a statement, Department of Defense spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said the surveys 'will help the military leadership assess the impacts, if any, a change in the law ... might have on family readiness and military community life.'"

GLT News: "The California Assembly today passed legislation that clarifies the religious freedom of clergy members in California. The Civil Marriage Religious Freedom Act, authored by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), reaffirms the separation of church and state and clarifies under state law that no member of clergy will be required to perform a civil marriage that is contrary to his or her faith. The Assembly approved Senate Bill 906 with a 46-25 vote. The bill will return to the Senator for a routine concurrence vote before going to the governor’s desk."

"[Walker's] decision is by no means neutral between competing moral viewpoints. It effectively writes a rejection of natural law theory into the constitution."

Excellent Education for Everyone (E3) / The Blitz: "The Hatikvah brief cites repeated efforts by the school district to deny parents transfer cards, delay or refuse to send transfer cards to Hatikvah school officials, harass parents who expressed interest in enrolling their students in the new dual language Hebrew charter school, and making false statements to the press."

R.J. Snell writing at Public Discourse: "[T]he utilitarian education of the new university views the cosmos (and its citizens) as brute, factical, as merely given—what Charles Taylor calls the 'great disembedding.' The cosmos is mere stuff—indifferent and valueless until it is found useful and assigned a task. Lacking a sense of the gratuity of being, such education lacks also commitment to the worth of being; lacking a sense of the worth of being, such education lacks also commitment to acting only in conformity with the dignity of things; lacking a sense of the dignity of things, such education lacks also commitment to civility and the teaching thereof."

On Top Mag: "In filing its challenge to Wisconsin's domestic partnership law, a group opposed to gay rights claims it's too similar to marriage . . . WFA had also supported passage of the anti-gay marriage amendment as the Family Research Institute. It is being represented by the Christian-based Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). ADF lawyers are also defending California's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, in federal court."

The New American: "With the timing of the ABA action thus closely coinciding with the action of Judge Walker, conservative attorneys, as well as other constitutionalists, are left with few alternatives but to continue the Proposition 8 fight all the way to the Supreme Court . . . 'The fact that ADF and other lawyers disagree with ABA on a number of controversial issues demonstrates the gross inaccuracy of ABA’s claim that it speaks for the U.S. legal profession,' remarked ADF Senior Legal Counsel [Doug Napier]."

Which Came First the Parent or the Child? Mary Patricia Byrn and Jenni Vainik Ives, 62 Rutgers L. Rev. 305 (2010) "From the moment a child is born, she is a juridical person endowed with constitutional rights. A child’s parents, however, do not become legal parents until a state statute grants them the fundamental right to raise one’s child. The state, therefore, exercises considerable power and discretion when it drafts the parentage statutes that determine who becomes a legal parent. This article asserts that the state, through its parens patriae power, has a duty to act as an agent for children when it drafts its parentage statutes. In particular, the state must adopt parentage statutes that satisfy children’s fundamental right to legal parents at birth. This right derives from the Substantive Due Process privacy right to form intimate, familial relationships, as well as the right to intimate association and ensures that a child may develop the parent-child relationships necessary to preserve her liberty, protect her rights, and define her identity."

The Sex Discount Kim Shayo Buchanan, 57 UCLA L. Rev. 1149 (2010) "This Article interrogates the sexual morality of Equal Protection. Gender equality jurisprudence reveals the unacknowledged influence of a traditional, heteronormative conception of sexual morality--the sexual double standard--that often sets the parameters of gender equality. When the U.S. Supreme Court frames a gendered law as limiting participation in education, the workplace, or civic life, it tends to apply a demanding form of heightened scrutiny that few gendered laws can survive. When, on the other hand, it frames a gendered law as governing the consequences of illicit sex, it tends to apply what I call the sex discount, replacing the rigorous scrutiny mandated by its public equality cases with an unacknowledged, much more deferential form of equal protection review. The Court invokes biological differences between men and women to justify this deference. But the sex discount does not genuinely accommodate gender differences regarding pregnancy, sexuality, or parenthood. Courts tend to reject reproductive justifications for inequality in public life; they tend to assume that biological differences are irrelevant when a heterosexual couple is married; they have applied the sex discount to gendered laws that serve no interest in protecting fetal life; and they apply a sex discount in cases of antigay discrimination that do not involve reproductive or sexual behavior. Rather, the sex discount authorizes governments to use gendered laws to enforce traditional gender norms about the morality of sex: to discourage abortion, to allow antigay discrimination, and to 'incentivize' heterosexual marriage."

HRC: Today President Obama appointed Richard Sorian as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services. | White House press release

Morris News Service: "The State Board of Education upheld the denial of two online schools Tuesday, frustrating parents seeking options for their children. The board met to allow members to consider granting charters for Georgia Virtual Academy and Mercury Online Academy, which the Georgia Charter Schools Commission denied in June. The commission rejected the two applications largely because neither had a governing board that could act independently of the national companies contracted to operate the schools."

Watertown Daily Times: "The Justice Department has filed motion in U.S. District Court to participate in the case as an 'amicus curiae,' or friend of the court, essentially volunteering to help the court decide whether federal discrimination claims by former student Charles P. Pratt should be upheld. Mr. Pratt, who filed suit in April 2009, alleged he was harassed, called names, physically assaulted and threatened . . . Mr. Pratt claims that district officials were aware of the problems but deliberately refused to help him. He also said any attempts by him to form a Gay-Straight Alliance at the high school were shot down by administrators."