Archives › 2006 › September
Abigail Garner, Advocate for LGBT Families, Moves On
Abigail Garner, author of the must-read Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It Is, publisher of Web sites Damn Straight and Oversampled, and all-around advocate for LGBT families, has announced she will leave her career as “professional queerspawn” as of the end of the year. Abigail has done a tremendous amount [...]
Weekly Political Roundup
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger showed his middle-of-the-road orientation this week. He signed one bill making it harder to use the “gay panic” defense, another that standardizes housing laws to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and a third that adds fair treatment of LGBT people to a voluntary pledge taken by candidates [...]
Play-Doh Warning Label
Has anyone else noticed that some containers of Play-Doh products contain the warning: “Molded results vary depending on child’s age and level of skill”? I suppose I should have expected such a thing in a country where all takeout coffee cups must caution us that “Contents May be Hot.” Come on, though. Is any parent [...]
Free Museum Admissions
Tomorrow, September 30, is Museum Day, and that means museums across the U. S. will be offering free admission. Simply print a pass from the Smithsonian Web site and you and a guest can get in free to participating museums. (Special exhibits may not qualify.) The Smithsonian organizes the yearly event, but this is the [...]
Book Review: Before You Were Born: Our Wish for a Baby
Before You Were Born: Our Wish for a Baby is a book series by registered nurse Janice Grimes, who works in an IVF (in vitro fertilization) clinic and is an IVF mom herself. The series is intended to help parents explain genetic origins to children conceived by assisted reproduction. Each of the sixteen volumes explains [...]
Finger Length, Sports Ability, and Lesbians
Women whose ring fingers are longer than their index fingers are more likely to have high athletic ability, a new study from King’s College London claims. Interestingly, an earlier study from the University of California-Berkeley showed that lesbians also tend to have longer ring fingers. Does this mean all lesbians are athletes? Or all female [...]
IKEA to Offer Branded Food Line
I’ve long been a fan of Swedish furniture company IKEA’s smart design and low prices. Today, the company announced it will be rolling out a line of branded food products this fall, building on a number of Swedish edibles it already offers. (Thanks, Slashfood.) The company says “prices will follow the IKEA spirit of cheap [...]
Try to Remember, It’s Only September
I received an e-mail from HRC today, advertising their limited-edition holiday ornament and holiday greeting cards. Reality check: It’s still September. I’ve heard rumors of people who do their holiday shopping this early, but I’m not sure I want to know anyone that organized. If I manage to have a Halloween costume ready for my [...]
New Study Says Vaccines Not Associated with Encephalopathy
Many parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children because of concerns that some may in fact cause serious health problems. Whole-cell pertussis (DTP) vaccine and combined measles-mumps- rubella (MMR) vaccine, for example, have been associated with an increased frequency encephalopathy or encephalitis. A new report, however, says that childhood vaccination against whooping cough (pertussis) [...]
Chat with Rosanna Hertz
The chat is now over. Thanks to those of you who participated, and to Rosanna for joining us. Welcome to those of you coming here for tonight’s chat with Rosanna Hertz, author of Single by Chance, Mothers by Choice. The chat will begin at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. At 8:45, this link will become live, and [...]
Cancer Awareness
As pink begins to pervade the media in preparation for National Breast Cancer Month, Amanda at Blogher offers an important reminder that September was both Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and Leukemia and Lymphoma Awareness Month. She also suggests some ways people can help fight these diseases. My family has been hit by both lymphoma and [...]
The Advocate’s “Best Companies” List Includes Discrepancy with HRC Index
The corporate rankings just keep rolling in. After HRC last week and Working Mother yesterday, The Advocate today released its 2006 list of 10 companies it feels are good places for LGBT workers. This year’s 10 join 85 others (all unranked) that the magazine has picked in the past. It’s notable that three companies fell [...]
Working Mother Names Best Companies for Parents
Last week, I mentioned Working Mother magazine’s list of 100 Best Companies, in the context of HRC’s Corporate Equality Index. Today, Working Mother just put out its updated 2006 list. It’s useful to look through the list and see whether the company you want to work for or buy from is family friendly. It’s also [...]
The Changing Shape of the American Family
To pique your interest in the online chat with sociologist Rosanna Hertz I’m hosting tomorrow night, I wanted to share some statistics she sent me about the changing shape of the American family. Less than 25% of all families consist of a married, opposite-sex couple living with their own (biological or adopted) children—down from 40% [...]
Weekly Political Roundup
Republicans may not be able to count on the support of evangelical Christians to the extent they have done, the New York Times reports, saying “There is an undercurrent of concern that some evangelicals, unhappy that the GOP-led Congress and President Bush haven’t paid more attention to gay marriage and other ‘values’ issues, may stay [...]
Read a Banned Book
Tomorrow begins the 25th annual Banned Books Week (BBW), which “celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.” Despite the [...]
Act OUT: the National LGBT Family Conference
The Family Pride Coalition is hosting Act OUT: the National LGBT Family Conference, October 27-29, 2006, at the LGBT family-friendly Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, Texas. The conference is a three-day event focused on advocacy, education, and community building for LGBT-headed families and allies. Family Pride expects hundreds of families to attend from across the country. [...]
Icons, Images, and Invisibility
Less than 25% of all U. S. families consist of a married mom, dad, and their children, according to the 2000 Census. (Thanks to Rosanna Hertz for pointing this out to me.) Why then, is it so hard to find depictions of other types of families? I wrote a few weeks ago about finding a [...]
Reminder: Chat with Rosanna Hertz Here on September 26
I will be hosting an online chat with Rosanna Hertz, author of Single by Chance, Mothers by Choice: How Women are Choosing Parenthood without Marriage and Creating the New American Family, on Tuesday, September 26, 2006, from 9-10 p.m. EDT. You can read my review of the book here. Even if you’re not a single [...]
HRC’s Corporate Equality Index: One Facet of a Broader Picture
The Human Rights Campaign released its fifth annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI) today, ranking companies based on their benefits, protections, and outreach to the LGBT community. The number of companies scoring a perfect 100 rose to 138 from last year’s 101. HRC reports: Among the companies surveyed in the new report, this year: 75 percent [...]
Arrrh, It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day
It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day. If you don’t know anything about this fast-growing observance (which started as a joke between friends), the Talk Like a Pirate Day Web site has a brief history and examples of pirate phrases, including the useful Top 29 Things to Say at the Office During Pirate Day. (“Fax [...]
New “Friends for Families” Networking Site Wants LGBT Feedback
I read the other day about Friends for Families, a new “online matching service designed to help your family connect with other families in your area.” It’s similar to a site like Match.com, but instead of matching people for dates, it matches families wanting to meet other families for socializing. It matches them based on [...]
Free Coffee
Yahoo! will be offering coupons for a free cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee to anyone who sets Yahoo! as their homepage this Friday. It’s unclear what the actual mechanics of this will be, or how long Yahoo! has to be your homepage before you can reset it. Presumably Yahoo! will publish details later in the [...]
Finding Inclusive Schools
The Seattle Times published an article this week on Finding Schools that Strive to be Inclusive. It’s a positive article, with examples of two moms, two dads, and interracial families. There are also some useful hints for educators, such as: A phrase such as “don’t forget to tell your parents about the field trip” rather [...]
Weekly Political Roundup
An anti-LGBT group in Illinois has abandoned its efforts to place a referendum about same-sex marriage on the ballot this November. They did not collect enough signatures, and failed in a court challenge. In Shreveport, Louisiana, three of nine gay and lesbian activists were taken into custody after attempting to enlist at a U. S. [...]
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