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Two moms or two dads, no worries

When two women or two men decide to have children together, there's a few thorny issues to work out. From who gives birth to obtaining and divvying up the sperm, the rules change -- just a little. And then there's the mommy and daddy part.

Jay, an iReporter from Boston, Massachusetts, says she and her female partner have lots of details to account for as they plan their family, but that overall, it's just another family.

With same-sex marriage being debated in several states, further discussion is taking place about raising children in these partnerships. We asked iReporters what it's like to have a child in a same-sex relationship or to have gay parents. We got tons of thoughtful responses.

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Gay teens at center of controversies find support in each other

For gay teens Constance McMillen and Ceara Sturgis, high school has ended, but acceptance of their sexuality in each of their Mississippi towns is just beginning, they say.

McMillen made headlines in the spring when she asked to attend her prom wearing a tuxedo and escorting a girl. Her school district in Itawamba County canceled the prom entirely. (On Tuesday, McMillen is in the spotlight again as she travels to the White House to meet President Obama at a ceremony recognizing the contributions of LGBT Americans.)

The superintendent of the Itawamba County school district told CNN that she couldn't comment on the case while the case is pending.

Around 250 miles away in Wesson, Sturgis wore a tuxedo, instead of the traditional drape or dress, for her senior portrait. She believes that she was penalized by being omitted from the senior section in her yearbook.

Neither the principal nor the school's superintendent would talk with CNN. After repeated calls, the district office administrator told CNN, "We're done." In October, the principal told a Jackson TV station he wasn't able to comment "on that particular situation."

"Everything happens for a reason," Sturgis said in an interview with CNN's Soledad O'Brien. "This is the start of something new. I think that this can be the change for gay youth. One day it's going to be different. And somebody has to start it, and why not us?"

The two women have become a support system for each other, connected, in part, by the Mississippi Safe School Coalition. The group is made up of mostly college and high school students who are working to make schools in Mississippi safer for, and more accepting of, gay youth.

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Race, ethnicity can be challenge to gay acceptance

It's been a long time since Niki Solis was a teen living on a different coast than her parents, uncertain how to tell her Latino, Catholic family that she's a lesbian. In the decades since they found out -- they were surprised only that she waited so long to tell them, Solis said -- that kind of uncertainty faded amid her legal career, marriage in San Francisco and motherhood.

"I have to say, in my life, it's hard for me to remember homophobia," said Solis, 42. "When you're open and honest about it, people are more accepting. If I don't have a problem with it, why should they?"

For the first time since Gallup began its annual Values and Beliefs survey a decade ago, more than half of respondents said gay and lesbian relations were "morally acceptable." The number has risen most years since 2001, and peaked this year at 52 percent. The percentage that said gay and lesbian relations are "morally wrong" dropped to a new low of 43 percent. Support for same-sex marriage increased, too, although more than half still said they oppose it.

"I would not say it was a surprise," Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport said. "Obviously, there have been changes in the environment. Gay and lesbian relations are more public and more discussed."

But it's not more public among all demographics. The latest data doesn't count what LGBT advocates say is one of the greatest challenges for acceptance: race and ethnicity. Acceptance increases when people know gay or lesbian individuals, and for decades, white gays and lesbians were more open to the mainstream. People of color weren't.

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Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off

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think it comes down to loving and respecting a child for who they are no matter what. If you can't do that then you have no business being a parent in my book.

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Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off