ACLU Makes Progress on Bigoted Georgia Court Ruling

A mother wants to allow her sever year old to be cared for by another woman. A judge inserts himself and decides the woman is unfit simply because she's a lesbian and he throws the child into the social services machine. The American Civil Liberties union fought for the mother and foster-mom, and Family Services returned the child. Still the judge wants the foster-mom and her lawyer to be thrown in jail! This is disgusting.

Are you a member of the ACLU? Join or renew right now. They fight bigots in own country for our freedoms.

After almost three months, a seven-year-old girl has been reunited with the woman in whose care she'd thrived for almost a year before being sent to live in a crowded foster home...

Although Emma's biological mother told the court that she wished for the child to be raised and adopted by Hadaway, Wilkinson County Superior Court Judge John Lee Parrott ordered that the child be taken away from her home when he learned that Hadaway is a lesbian...

On May 21, the ACLU argued that Wilkinson County DFCS must allow Emma to return home. The ACLU will brief the appeal of Judge Parrott's contempt order in the Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday of this week.

Hadaway is represented by Weber and Maggie Garrett of the ACLU of Georgia, Choe and James Esseks of the ACLU's national LGBT Project, and cooperating counsel Dan Bloom of Pachman Richardson, LLC in Atlanta and Amy Waggoner of Aussenberg Waggoner, LLP in Alpharetta.

More information on the case, Hadaway v. Fowler-Dennard, can be found online at www.aclu.org/lgbt/parenting/29566res20070502.html.

Our rights depend on our willingness to defend them. Join the ACLU today.

Obama's Tough Love

A friend in Republican recovery sent me an e-mail bemoaning Obama's "airing dirty laundry" of the African-American community , comparing it to Bill Clinton's Sister Souljah moment. He's convinced white voters who responded to Clinton's move wouldn't vote for Obama anyway, while black voters may punish him for speaking out about these (not just) black issues.

I think, in the end, he won't pick up any of those white voters Clinton did, and he's going to permanently lose a lot of black voters who were questioning just how "black" he is.

in my opinion, while these issues affect the black community, it's not just the black community. Education and self-respect is an issue in every community, maybe especially in poor and minority communities. When people speak out, they get backlash, but inevitably there comes a time when people who need leadership will begin to listen.

This was my reply to him:

I think you're being too cynical. There's no evidence this is just a political move. He isn't saying anything near radical. These are common themes discussed regularly, including by him in the past. Plus he's not doing this to distance himself from anyone, like Clinton was.

Maybe he doesn't want people to throw trash out of their window not because he wants to pick up white voters, but because it's correct. I see that kind of littering don't-give-a-crap-about-my

-front-yard mentality every day, and it's always in neighborhoods that are a wreck - people dumping their Filet-O-Fish boxes on their own front steps.

If anything, maybe he's calculating that he can pick up black support by talking about issues that are resonating with black voters. I think black leaders are tired of their own constituents' attitude as well. I've seen it firsthand. I've covered events in my neighborhood where this very thing was discussed. "Stop killing each other."

Stop thinking like a Republican. Not everything is a cynical move. Sometimes things are about leadership.