If you can’t get married, be sure to adopt your kid. “When a married couple has a child together, both parents automatically have a legal parent-child relationship with the child,” writes Tiffany Palmer in the American Bar Association’s Human Rights (Summer). “Because same-sex couples cannot currently marry, this automatic legal relationship is not available, and, in most situations when a same-sex couple has a child together, only one parent has a legal relationship to the child.” If the nonlegal parent has to make a decision for the child, this creates all sorts of difficulties when it comes to things such as inheritance, health insurance, and consent when emergency medical services are needed. The nonlegal parent can adopt the child in Illinois, Indiana, and eight other states (not Wisconsin), as well as in some counties in other states. Not discussed in the article: whether President Bush and the Catholic Church will advocate second-parent adoption laws as part of their crusade against gay marriage.
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Life in the insanely fast lane. According to Abraham McLaughlin’s story in the Christian Science Monitor (July 7), Chicago car enthusiast Phil Corcoran paid $100,000 for a founding membership in the Joliet Autobahn Country Club. “The retired computer-firm owner has a Z06 Corvette (0-to-60 in less than four seconds), a Porsche, and a BMW. But there’s no place nearby to drive them fast and furious….At Joliet, nonfounding members will pay a $10,000 initiation fee and a $3,000 yearly fee for unlimited track time.”
