Word: lesbians
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...Navy career had been "relatively stress-free" before "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" took effect, says Joan Darrah, a retired captain, and a lesbian, who served in various intelligence billets from 1972 to 2002. She kept her sexual orientation secret during her career, but that denial took its toll after "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" led to increased focus on homosexuality in the ranks. She recalls having to administer a survey on the topic to 250 subordinates in the wake of the new policy. "We all sat down taking this survey asking, 'Do you know a gay person...
...social and political conservatives tend to be more cautious about Pan-European institutions than those on the left, this week provided another example why. The European Court of Human Rights overturned French court rulings that prevented a single lesbian woman from adopting a child. The decision sets a precedent not just across the 27-nation European Union, but throughout the 47-member Council of Europe. Gay and lesbian groups say it opens the way for legal challenges in other European states with adoption laws similar to those of France - yet falls well short of a blanket ruling that would oblige...
...homosexuality had been "if not explicit, at least implicit" in France's rejection of her adoption request. The Court judged France had violated the European Convention on Human Rights - to which France and the other 46 Council of Europe members are signatories - by failing to assess adoption by a lesbian the same way it would a single heterosexual...
...Indeed, Tuesday's ruling, in many ways, represents a back door to equal treatment. Franck Tanguy, spokesman for France's Association of Gay and Lesbian Parents, says "this ruling is a step in the right direction" in that it "requires countries that, like France, allow singles to adopt children to treat unmarried homosexual and heterosexual applicants in exactly the same manner." Failure to do so in any country with such legislation, Tanguy says, means they'd "find themselves condemned again and again for discrimination by the many single homosexuals who'd use this precedent to base a legal defense...
...Nine European countries currently permit gay and lesbian couples to adopt children: Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands, the U.K., and Sweden. Tuesday's ruling may be a boon for single homosexuals seeking to adopt children where unwed heterosexuals are allowed to do so. But Tanguy says it may also cause countries to shelve any plans to allow straight unmarried couples to adopt in order to keep gays and lesbians from doing the same...