Hallelujah!  A higher court ruling in Virginia bodes well for a Vermont lesbian whose former partner fled to Virginia rather than allow the former partner to visit their daughter.  Its been a long tangled case, but essentially the Virginia courts recognize that Vermont has jurisdiction in the case.  Vermont has ordered shared custody.  Here's more from Lambda Legal:

‘The Virginia Court of Appeals rightly recognized that federal law protects parents against the very thing Lisa Miller did — parents can ’t shop around looking for a court to give them sole custody.’

(Richmond, VA, November 28, 2006) — Today, the Virginia Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the Commonwealth of Virginia has no say in a custody dispute that began in Vermont between Janet Jenkins and her former partner Lisa Miller.

“This has been a long road for Janet and now she’s that much closer to seeing her daughter again,” said Greg Nevins, Senior Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Southern Regional Office in Atlanta. “The Virginia Court of Appeals rightly recognized that federal law protects parents against the very thing Lisa Miller did—parents cannot shop around looking for a court to give them sole custody.”

Janet Jenkins (formerly Janet Miller-Jenkins) filed an appeal with the Virginia Court of Appeals seeking to enforce a Vermont court order saying she must have regular visitation with the now four-year-old daughter she and her former partner, Lisa Miller (formerly Miller-Jenkins), had when the two women were joined in a Vermont civil union. After the women ended their relationship, Miller moved to Virginia with the women’s daughter, and she asked a Vermont court to dissolve the couple’s civil union and sort out custody of the child. When the Vermont court ordered visitation for Jenkins, Miller filed a new lawsuit in Virginia court, successfully using that state’s antigay marriage law to have herself declared the child’s sole legal parent. The conflicting court orders - one from Vermont ordering regular visitation for Jenkins, and the other from a lower court in Virginia naming Miller the sole parent - led to today’s decision from Virginia’s intermediate court. Earlier this month the Vermont court found Miller in contempt for violation of its order for shared custody.

The 14-page decision by Senior Judges Willis and Annunziata and Judge Clements says, “We hold that the trial court erred in failing to recognize that the PKPA [Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act] barred its exercise of jurisdiction. Accordingly we vacate the orders of the trial court and remand this case with instruction to grant full faith and credit to the custody and visitation orders of the Vermont court.”

Today’s decision was the result of Jenkins’ appeal, which argued that the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act and Virginia’s Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act make it clear that the Vermont court alone has jurisdiction in the matter and cannot be interfered with. Furthermore, the federal kidnapping law (PKPA) requires that the Vermont order be enforced in Virginia.

The soap which turned Erica Kane's daughter into a lesbian has done it again.  All My Children, a long running soap opera on ABC, has plans to introduce daytime television's first transgender character (365gay.com).

The characer is Zarf, a flamboyant rock star who will kiss aforementioned lesbian Bianca Montgomery and then eventually begin transitioning from male to female.  How far the storylinen will go depends on fan reaction.  Fans have ardently embraced Bianca's story over the past several years, particularly her romance with former love Maggie.  However, along the way, AMC had to have Bianca raped and impregnated, murder her rapist and have her child kidnapped for multiple months.  Just your typical lesbian stuff.  Imagine what they'll do with a transgendered woman?

AMC is working with GLAAD and transgender advisers.  Let's see what happens.  Unfortunately, Ledcat and I don't get ABC so I may have to rely on internet summaries.

This week a long time dream finally came true.  When I was a wee lass, I caught an occasional glimpse of a cool television show called "Family" featuring this tight-knit family that seemed incredibly wonderful.  My own family didn't watch the show so its always sort of been this nagging memory, scraps of scenes most of which featured the oh-so-delicious Kristy McNichol.  I sort of remembered the mother and the older brother, Willie, but that was about it.

Wait for it ....this past weekend, I bought seasons 1 and 2 of Family on DVD.  It is my first DVD purchase, financed in part with a gift card my excellent friends Brenda and Michelle gave me for my birthday.  But enough of that ...

So I have watched the first three episodes.  Its magical!  Kristy is 12 in the show so its a crush of her being the girl I wish I could have been at that age -- she's so cool. Yes, at the ripe old age of 36 I can still say that with total aplomb. Plus, she grows up to be Kristy McNichol.  Rumored to be a lesbian and manic-depressive.  I have been unable to confirm either since she dropped out of public life to become a hairdresser, teach acting and run a tennis camp.

I have found countless websites listing Kristy encounters.  The closest I came to a Kristy encounter was singer-songwriter Autumn Ayers. If Kristy is half as delightful as Autumn, that would be an encounter worth having.

So what's the big deal about a 1970's television show?  Everything.  It is the best way to revisit your childhood, especially since I have a lingering fear of 1970's teenagers especially those wearing multi-striped shirts and fringed pants.  Don't ask me why. 

Watching Family reminds me of my fantasy childhood the one where I had a really cool older brother (his name was John in my head) and my  mother prepared gourmet meals and cookies (my actual mother rotated 10 recipes most involving some sort of gray item - who eats gray food?).  Plus, there was a soundrack and I had my own bathroom.  Who wouldn't want to revisit that?

So Kristy McNichol skyrockets back to the top of my list. 

Jo Ellen Hovis of Harrisville asks a good question. 

Hearing the uproar about actor Michael Richards' angry outburst at a comedy club really upset me. I have to ask, though, what's the big deal?

Jo Ellen points out that its hard to muster up sympathy for two reverse-heckling victims when men, black and white, make huge profits publicly disrespecting women through their "art." 

All this talk about people hiding their hatreds and prejudices is noteworthy, but why don't men have to hide their hatred of women? They make money off of it. They get laughs with it. They let kids sing it.

I presume Jo Ellen is asking for the dialogue about hatespeech be expanded beyond using the "N" word and she's certainly right.  Disrespect is a cornerstone of contemporary pop culture.  From Justin Timberlake playing the choir-boy "I was duped" card to the horrific lyrics in woman-hating music, it pervades our lives 24/7.  When thinking people (especially women) strip these individual artists/performers of responsibility for achieving fame (or infamy) on the backs of our sisters, they are part of the problem.  Michael Richards behaved like an ass and deserves the public scorn and shame. 

But my own take on Michael Richards is that we are focusing far too much on the individual when we should be talking about why white people with power and privilege (such as Seinfeld residuals will get ya) feel free to cross these boundaries.  They know all the backstory on the word, but use it anyway b/c they feel untouchable.  I hear that word far too often in my own little circle of white people. Richards is getting some backlash just like Mel Gibson.  Both will survive the incidents.  Richards appears to have some deeper issues that prevent him from smoothly handling heckling.  Gibson appears to have a problem holding his booze.  Those things might fell them, but in a land of mighty white men they will both endure their racism, anti-Semitism and misogyny.  Fear not, intrepid upward looking, middle-class white boys -- your heroes won't let you down. 

On another note .... take a look at an article from Sunday's PG exploring the liberal classroom leanings of Penn State Professor Michael Berube.  Good stuff about academic freedom and the organized attempt of the far right to take control of liberal arts classrooms. 

That's right ... I served Stove Top stuffing for our Thanksgiving dinner and I make no apologies.  :-)   I bought an organic free-range turkey, mashed potatoes like there was no tomorrow, and baked the ancient-family recipe Date Nut Pudding from scratch.  So I took a few shortcuts in other areas.  I think all the organic goodness cancels out the stuffing slur.  I should have bought organic stuffing, but I didn't think that quickly on my feet.  I'll put my early morning slicing of dates against your onion and celery dicing any day of the week....

Gay turkey celebrations are always interesting.  At best, you have the usual two family balance to master.  We spent actual Turkey Day with Ledcat's family which was vastly entertaining due to the adorable antics of the 11 month old niece.  Especially when she was staring entranced at 97 year old great-grandpa as he napped in his chair.  Plus, there was homemade pecan pie.  Now that's Thanksgiving.   Friday my family came to our abode for dinner.  No baby, but I did get to watch my 110 lb dogs act like total fools over my 100 lb grandma -- she's like the Pied Piper of dogs. Today, I want a cheeseburger ....

No matter how crazy and hectic and stuffing-challenged the holiday, I am thankful that between Ledcast and I we have three 90something grandparents still celebrating with us. 

Amen.