Ms. Hecht, 35, who will change her name to Ms. Hecht-McGowan, is the senior legislative counsel for the Family Equality Council in Washington.
Most of the legal obstacles facing gay couples intending to adopt stem from prohibitions on marriage, according to the Family Equality Council, an advocacy group for gay families.
Jennifer Chrisler, the executive director of the Family Equality Council, explained: "If your kid is throwing a temper tantrum, no one is looking at you thinking: 'See?
Jennifer W. Chrisler, executive director of the Family Equality Council, another advocacy group, estimated that one million lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families were raising two million children.
Family Week is run by the Family Equality Council and is a week full of activities and programs for LGBTQ parents, children, families, and friends!
"Gay parenthood is much more porous," says Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of the Family Equality Council, a Washington-based advocacy group.
One gay leader invited to the Oval Office that day was Jennifer Chrisler of the Family Equality Council, an advocacy organization for gay families based in Massachusetts.
The report, produced by the Movement Advancement Project, the Family Equality Council and the Center for American Progress, also outlines the many other rights, benefits and legal responsibilities that are at stake when legal ties cannot be established.
The news from California brought a rousing cheer at Thursday's clambake for the major donors to the group that organizes Family Week, the Family Equality Council, a nonprofit educational organization.
In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Mr. Biden invoked some of the same language that advocates of same-sex marriage use, speaking of family, equality and love.
Among them is Laura Milliken Gray of Salt Lake City, who said she goes through "all kinds of gyrations" for couples who "want to achieve family equality that their straight brothers and sisters have".
