The 2006 Weblog Awards
Nominations for the 2006 Weblog Awards open later today Monday. [They just updated the date.] Polly at LesbianDad wrote to me suggesting that LGBT-family bloggers flood the existing Parenting Blog category with LGBT-family-blog nominations as a way of raising awareness about our families. (Our blogs could also go under the general LGBT Blog category.)
Polly also pointed out that the organizers of the awards are taking suggestions over the next few days for new categories. She and Liza and I debated whether a new category for LGBT Parenting Blogs would be a good thing. Our experience is in many ways distinct from that of straight parents. From another perspective, many of last year’s finalists in the LGBT category were political blogs, and none focused on LGBT families. Would entering parenting blogs in this category be like comparing apples to oranges? On the other hand, a separate category might serve to ghettoize us with respect to the general parenting blogs and overemphasize the differences between LGBT families and straight ones, rather than highlight our right to sit at the parenting table.
We didn’t resolve the issue, so it’s up to you if you’d like to suggest a new category (leave a comment on the Weblog Awards site) or nominate any LGBT-family blogs in any or all appropriate categories.
Filed under: Parenting, Selves and Identities
Thank you, Dana, for reminding us about this (I was all in a dither over how many women were inching toward national political significance that I forgot what else was happening in November!).
I put one of the Weblog Awards icons on my site, and would encourage other folks to do the same. Myself, I’m leaning toward the notion that LGBT parenting blogs ought to be nominated alongside the regular (hetero) ones, knowing that we’ll be outnumbered. Yet the value of the visibility in the nominating process (they do list multiple runners-up, I think?) might bring more straight readers to our stories, and ultimagely more understanding and compassion about the issues our families face. Is what I’m thinking at the moment.
LesbianDad is ALWAYS one step ahead of me. Let’s do it! Flood the nominations!
Just nominated you, Dana. Can we vote over and over for one another like it’s Chicago in the 1930s?
[...] See, I thought I was standing in line at the carousel. Let me explain. Some other lesbian parent bloggers and I were interested in opening up lines of communication between our rich online community and that of straight parent bloggers. So we encouraged folks to nominate LGBT family blogs for the “Best Parenting” blog category. As an afterthought, I included my blog in “Best New Blog.” What the hell, I thought; more folks will stop by and take a look as they’re idly perusing the nominees. [...]