Archives › 2006 › June
Churches Debate Issues of Sexuality and Gender
Lots of LGBT-related church news right now. The U. S. Episcopal Church last week chose its first female leader, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. The move strains both the Church’s internal divisions and its relations with other members of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Most other countries’ Anglican churches do not permit women to become bishops. Many conservative [...]
The World’s Best Paper Airplane
I loved paper airplanes as a kid, and now have lots of fun making them for my son. He’s not quite old enough to fold them himself, but when he is, we may try the self-proclaimed “Best Paper Airplane in the World.” Thanks to Lifehacker for stepping away from their usual productivity tips to point [...]
Happy Father’s Day
Happy Father’s Day! Happy Father’s Day? From a lesbian-mom blog? Yes, that’s right. Happy Father’s Day to all the gay dads out there, and to my straight-dad readers. Happy Father’s Day to those lesbian moms who do celebrate fathers in your children’s lives, or who use the day to honor other male relatives. Happy Father’s [...]
“Marriage Equivalent”
A free association upon hearing the term "marriage equivalent": Salt substitute Imitation vanilla Cheese food Whipped topping Artificial sweetener Margarine spread
Weekly Political Roundup
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U. S. should debate same-sex marriage “with respect for every human being,” but declined to give her own views, saying it was not her area of expertise or concentration. Cop-out or good decision not to play politics by stepping into a domestic issue that, well, really isn’t in [...]
A Book for Storytellers and Poets: Frederick
Frederick is a book that should be on every preschooler’s shelf. A Caldecott award winner, it’s the charming tale of a mouse with a talent for words, whose contribution to his community is through his stories. It celebrates imagination and being different. The one criticism I’ve heard about the book is that Frederick is too [...]
Find Jobs at LGBT-Friendly Companies
If you’re in the workforce or looking to go back after a stay-at-home stint, you may want to check out the new LGBT-friendly job search engine from Simply Hired. The service filters for jobs at companies that have scored a perfect 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. The press release has more [...]
Google Earth: Geography for Kids and Adults
Google has released version 4 of their amazing 3D mapping software, Google Earth. If you haven’t played around with it, I highly recommend giving it a try, especially if you have kids who are learning geography. “Fly” around the earth and see both satellite views and road maps. Overlay landmarks and geographic features. See 3D [...]
A new book on same-sex marriage adds compelling evidence to the debate, while also making some controversial recommendations. Gay Marriage: For Better or For Worse? claims to be “the first of its kind to present empirical evidence about same-sex marriage.” The authors, attorneys Darren R. Spedale and William N. Eskridge, Jr., study the example of [...]
LGBT Rights: The Religious Perspective
One of the contributors to Blogging for LGBT Families Day just wrote a great article for the Syracuse Post-Standard, on finding God’s love and community as a lesbian family. I’m not particularly religious myself, but it makes me sick when the ultra-conservatives try to frame LGBT rights as a matter of the religious vs. the [...]
Save Time: Buy Non-Perishables Online Through Amazon
Amazon is now offering over 10,000 different non-perishable groceries online. This sounds useful for moms (and dads) in a number of ways: For hard-to-find items that local stores may not carry. Amazon has a good selection of natural and organic products, for example, as well as items like vegan and gluten-free foods. (My personal hard-to-find [...]
The Heart of the Game Looks at Girls’ Basketball and Lives
The Heart of the Game, a new documentary about a Seattle girls’ high-school basketball team, opened yesterday in Los Angeles and New York. The film, an official selection of the Toronto Film Festival, looks fantastic, based on trailer and reviews. One of those worth getting a sitter for, rather than waiting for Netflix. It captures [...]
Weekly Political Roundup
This week’s big story was, of course, the defeat of the Federal Marriage Amendment. News didn’t stop happening elsewhere, though: Alabama adopted a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, with over 80% of voters supporting the ban. The state of Missouri dropped its appeal of a decision that a lesbian was wrongly prevented from becoming a [...]
New Mombian Infant and Toddler Wear
Already have a dozen “I Love My Two Mommies” shirts for your little one? Try the new Mombian “Mommies’ Alarm Clock” wear. Sure to cause chuckles at the Pride March and double-takes at the supermarket.
FDA Approves Cervical-Cancer Vaccine
The Food and Drug Administration today approved a vaccine for cervical cancer, the second-leading cause of death among women around the world. The FDA says vaccines are most effective when they immunize enough people so that the pathogen disappears. The New York Times reports that a Centers for Disease Control committee will likely recommend that [...]
. . . your three-year-old is is doing everything in his considerable power to delay naptime, and you think to yourself, “I have to invoke cloture.”
Pregnant Women Warned to Avoid Canned Tuna
Pregnant women should avoid all canned tuna, Consumer Reports magazine warned this week, citing potentially high levels of mercury. The Food and Drug Administration, on the other hand, says the average amount of mercury in light tuna is still within acceptable limits. Consumer Reports counters that although average amounts in light tuna may be low, [...]
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled yesterday that lesbian moms using anonymous donor sperm can both be registered as parents on their child’s birth record, without the non-bio mom needing to adopt. The judge gave the Ontario government 12 months to change the law. This may not be the last word on the matter, [...]
Victory Against the Federal Marriage Amendment
The U. S. Senate voted 49-48 today to kill the Federal Marriage Amendment. Seven Republicans joined 41 Democrats to invoke cloture, a motion (known to fans of The West Wing) to end debate on the proposal and not bring it to a full vote. (Eleven more votes would have been needed to move to a [...]
k. d. Reintarnated
Speaking of entertainment that we consider “part of our personal LGBT experience,” k. d. lang has a new album that’s been out for just over a month. Reintarnation is a compilation of 19 songs from the first ten years of her career, plus one previously unreleased track. I’m not generally a country-western fan, but k. [...]
Russ Feingold Sticks It
When my partner and I first met, in Madison, Wisconsin, she drove an elderly Honda Civic sporting a bumper sticker for Russ Feingold’s first U. S. Senate campaign. The sticker covered a rather large rust hole, but I figured she would have used non-partisan duct tape if she didn’t also want to make a political [...]
Words from Our Allies
Many straight allies submitted entries to Blogging for LGBT Families Day, proving once again that LGBT rights is not merely an interest-group issue. (Unless, of course, you count all those in favor of equality an interest group.) Here are some extracts: “I am a heterosexual, ten-years-married mother of two who cannot understand how anyone’s loving, [...]
New Test May Help Time Inductions
In at least one hospital, more pregnant women than usual were scheduling inductions yesterday, trying to avoid giving birth on today’s date of 6/6/06. They fear the date corresponds to 666, the number of the beast, or Antichrist, in Revelations 13:18. It’s fitting then, that there’s news today of a new test that may more [...]
Whose LGBT Experience Are We Talking About?
The June 20th Advocate features results of a reader survey about “experiences as LGBT Americans.” One item looked at entertainment that readers considered “part of their personal LGBT experience,” and listed Queer as Folk, The L Word, Madonna, Cher, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, and Christina Aguilera as possible answers. Yeah, right. I saw Judy Garland [...]
The Activist Parent
For me, one of the great pleasures from Blogging for LGBT Families Day has been reading posts that make me think. Matt over at The Q-Triad Blog wrote something that seems particularly appropriate today, as all the major (and many minor) American LGBT Web sites are urging us to contact our senators and stop the [...]
