Student Braves Controversy, Refuses to Recite Pledge

"Liberty and justice for all?"

Will Phillips doesn't believe that describes America for its gay and lesbian citizens. He's a 10-year-old at West Fork Elementary School in Arkansas, about three hours east of Oklahoma City. Given his beliefs, he refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, specifically because that one phrase, "liberty and justice for all," he says, does not truly apply to all.

That did not go over well with the substitute teacher in his fifth-grade classroom.

The Arkansas Times reports that he started refusing to say the pledge Mon., Oct. 5. By Thursday, the substitute was steamed. She told Will she knew his mother and grandmother and they would want him to recite the pledge.

Will told the Times the substitute got more and more upset. She raised her voice. By this point, Will told the newspaper, he started losing his cool too, adding: "After a few minutes, I said, 'With all due respect ma'am, go jump off a bridge.'"
That got him sent to the principal's office. The principal made him look up information about the flag and what it represents. Meanwhile, there was the inevitable call to his mother.

At first, mom Laura Phillips told the Times, the principal talked about Will telling a substitute to jump off a bridge. When pressed, the principal admitted the whole incident was sparked by the boy exercising his constitutional right not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Phillips suggested an apology was in order -- from the teacher. When the principal said that wasn't necessary, Will's mother started venting to friends via Twitter. Those friends, in turn, told the news media. And what would have been a minor classroom incident has people throughout Arkansas and beyond choosing sides.

As for Will, he continues to exercise his right to remain silent. It can be rough at times, he and his family admit. He has his share of supporters, however, his critics are louder and nastier -- especially because he took his stand to defend gay rights.

"In the lunchroom and in the hallway, they've been making comments and doing pranks, calling me gay," he told the Times. "It's always the same people, walking up and calling me a gaywad."

Nonetheless, Will told the paper, he is sticking to his convictions. A reporter for the paper asked Will -- with all this talk about patriotism and the pledge -- what he thinks it means to be an American.

"Freedom of speech," he responded. "The freedom to disagree. That's what I think pretty much being an American represents."

His mother is proud.

"He's probably more aware of the meaning of the pledge that a lot of adults," Phillips told the Times.

Lesbian couple win fight for IVF on the NHS

A Lesbian couple have won the right to IVF on the NHS after a legal tussle, ahead of laws that will put same-sex patients on an equal footing with heterosexuals.

The couple, who remain anonymous, had to go through a legal fight to push the NHS to fund IVF because, at the moment, individual trusts decide whether they wish to pay for treatment for lesbians.

The couple were initially refused IVF by their primary care trust because they were of the same sex. One of the women had polycystic ovarian syndrome, which disrupts ovulation, and is one of the most common causes of infertility.

From October, clinics will no longer be able to block lesbians by referring to a child’s “need for a father”. Instead, same-sex couples will need to demonstrate only that they can offer “supportive parenting”.

If NHS trusts continue to deny lesbians fertility treatment after this date they face possible legal action.

Ruth Hunt, head of policy at Stonewall, the lesbian, gay and bisexual charity, said: “The changes in the law should mean that no infertile lesbian is refused NHS fertility treatment on the grounds of her sexual orientation.

“We have just published a guide on how to get pregnant for lesbians in response to lots of queries. This is a hot topic for us at the moment.”

While same-sex couples have won new rights, many heterosexual couples continue to be denied IVF on the NHS. Only 27% of trusts offer heterosexual couples three cycles of treatment as recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the NHS guidance body.

If lesbians are fertile they can usually conceive by intrauterine insemination (IUI), the medical name for donor insemination. This is less complicated than IVF, which involves fertilising eggs in a test tube. IUI is also cheaper,at about £700 per attempt compared with £3,000 per cycle of IVF.

The lesbian couple enlisted David Herbert, a partner at the law firm Lester Aldridge, when they were denied IVF on the grounds that they were of the same sex. The trust reversed its decision in June.

Herbert said: “Discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is contrary to the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act. There is an element of conflict in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 which requires clinics to consider a child’s ‘need for a father’.

“This was used historically to justify denying treatment to same-sex couples. The ‘need for a father’ element is just about to be removed on the grounds that it is discriminatory. The assessment will be for ‘supportive parenting’, which will come into force in October.”

The government’s equality watchdog, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, took an interest and offered its support to the couple.

This is the second known case in which lesbians have been given fertility treatment after a legal fight. In February a Scottish couple forced Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS health board to offer them treatment.

Fatherless Families

A unique alliance of senior politicians and churchmen will tomorrow make a historic stand against an attempt by the Government of UK to "drive the last nail in the coffin of the traditional family". MPs and peers from all parties, backed by both Anglican and Catholic church leaders, will ambush legislation intended to let lesbian couples become parents to test-tube babies without any involvement of a father beyond donating sperm. The new law would remove the existing requirement on test-tube clinics to ensure that a father is involved in the upbringing of any child they help create. The alliance of church leaders and Tories - augmented by some Labour rebels - will oppose the new law when it comes up before the House of Lords tomorrow. Their campaign is being backed by MPs from all parties, led by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith. They believe that the battle will become as symbolic of changes in social attitudes as the debates about the Abortion Law in the Sixties and Clause 28 of the 1986 Local Government Act outlawing the "promotion" of homosexuality in state schools. Writing in The Mail on Sunday day before, Mr Duncan Smith, who has undertaken pioneering research into the critical role that fathers play in keeping youngsters out of trouble, says the proposed new law is "another nail in the coffin of the traditional family and another blow against fatherhood". Mr Duncan Smith and his allies say the measure is in line with covert moves by the Government to undermine traditional families by removing terms such as "marriage, father, mother, husband, wife and spouse" from the statute book - and even from official forms.

The new row has been provoked by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill which introduces new regulations governing the creation of embryos outside the human body. The most controversial provisions govern IVF treatment. The current duty on the part of clinics to take account of "the welfare of the child" when providing fertility treatment will be retained - but crucially, the reference to "the need for a father" will be removed. It means lesbian couples can be regarded as joint legal parents of children conceived through the use of donated sperm, eggs or embryos. In addition the new registration forms refer to "father or second parent". In the case of lesbian couples, this would allow one woman to be registered as the "mother" and the second woman as "second parent" instead of the sperm donor father.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, is expected to speak against the Bill in the Lords. He has regularly spoken out about the importance of fathers in avoiding a breakdown in family life and argued recently: "If we do not get a lot of role models from fathers, I don't think we're going to turn the tide." He has also spoken out in favour of the traditional two-parent family, arguing: "The Government needs to undertake a policy reorientation that incorporates the benefits of marriage to society as a whole, rather than relegating it to just another lifestyle choice." The Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, said yesterday: "The Bill proposes to remove the need for IVF providers to take into account the child's need for a father when considering an IVF application. "This is profoundly wrong as it radically undermines the place of the father in a child's life and makes the natural rights of the child subordinate to the couple's desires."

The campaigners say a new poll commissioned by the charity Christian Action Research and Education shows nearly four out of five people think it is vital to consider a child's need for a father when processing lesbian applicants for IVF treatment. The new law means that where sperm donor fathers are excluded by lesbian parents, children brought up by lesbian couples and who wish to contact their fathers will have to wait until they are 18 to exercise their legal right to establish their identity. Campaigners claim the new law is the latest evidence of a secret drive to remove traditional family roles from the statute book. An investigation established that in recent years, a number of measures have been pushed through quietly to achieve this. In 2000, tax credit forms were changed requiring applicants to refer to their spouses as "partners" not husbands and wives. Tax and benefits forms now routinely refer to "partners" instead of husbands, wives or spouses. And four years ago, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, then Equality Minister, was responsible for a Government report which said: "It is envisaged that Government forms currently asking for details of a person's 'marital status' would be altered to read 'civil status'."

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay and lesbian rights group Stonewall, said last night: "At a time when three million children in this country are growing up in singleparent households, it seems odd there should be this obsession with a few hundred who have the opportunity to have a second loving parent. "This is simply extending the protection that already exist in respect of heterosexuals." In 2000 Tony Blair pushed through legislation to repeal Section 28. But the move was opposed by religious groups and the Conservatives. The passage of the 1967 Abortion Bill also led to furious Parliamentary debate. It legalised abortion on demand and remains the basis of the current legislation.

The best I culled from the British press is this sentence: Men already believe they have become marginalised as sperm factories, walking wallets and occasional au pairs. By deepening their belief that a feminised Britain views them as surplus to requirements, this measure will therefore act as a further spur to male irresponsibility.

Long Live the Queen:) Incidentally, the ICMR guidelines have allowed Lesbians to legally take all the above mentioned treatments in India & we have been offering Lesbians the entire range of Infertility Services at Rotunda.