CVK
Nice to see that July’s issue of The Advocate featured an interracial couple on its cover. The cover story “Winning the Adoption Wars” is not specifically about interracial couples or transracial adoption, but rather about the widely varying state laws governing gay rights to adoption, and the ensuing confusion. Which makes it even better that they chose an interracial couple for the cover, since the message is: this is just a normal, loving gay couple like any other, we don’t have to wait until a cover story on interracial relationships to put such a couple on the cover. (By the way, a recent UCLA study found that “12 percent of gay couples are mixed compared with 7 percent of straight ones.”)

Kirchgassner and Robertson are among the millions of gay Americans with children who face uncertainty fueled by a sea of ever-changing state laws and statutes that affect everything from who is a legal parent to who may have what when a loved one dies. For families headed by gay and lesbian couples, an out-of-state move means considering things even more basic: Can I become a parent? Can I take time off work if my mate or child is gravely ill? Will I be able to inherit the home I live in and assets built over my lifetime and pass them along to my children?