Weekly Political Update

It was all Larry Craig, all the time, for most of the week, and then things got really interesting Thursday. I’ve posted about a few hot items already, like the major wins for equality in Maine and Iowa, and the appalling decision to keep a film depicting same-sex families out of the school curriculum in Evesham, New Jersey.

To follow up on the situation in Iowa: The Polk County Recorder’s Office issued 20 marriage licenses to same-sex couples before the judge who allowed them then issued a stay of his ruling. One couple managed to get a license, a waiver of the usual three-day waiting period, and a Unitarian minister to marry them before the window of opportunity closed. No word on the legal status of their marriage in the future.

Here’s a roundup of other other highlights: Read the rest of this post »

Horn Book Magazine on Books and Gender

The September/October issue of Horn Book Magazine, one of the leading journals on children’s and young adult literature, is all about books and gender. You can revisit the lesbian classic Annie on My Mind, learn how author Brian Selznick answered the question “Are you part man and part woman?,” discover “Gender Alchemy: The Transformative Power of Manga,” and read more from children’s and young adult writers on how one’s gender affects one’s reading.

Several of the feature articles are only available in print (including “Of Sissies, Invalids, and the Mysterious Boy in the Window,” and “The Genre of Gender: The Emerging Canon of Transgender-Inclusive YA Literature”), but even my smallish local library carries the journal, so it shouldn’t be hard to find. There are also a couple of Web extras, including several on censorship—appropriate given the upcoming Banned Books Week with And Tango Makes Three at the top of the list.

Lots of good stuff for us literary types.

School Board Upholds Ban on Film Depicting Same-Sex Families

School-related news is flying faster than first graders at recess this week:

The Evesham Township School Board in New Jersey voted 7-1 to uphold the removal of the film That’s a Family! from its elementary health curriculum. The Board had eliminated the film in early February after some parents protested the documentary’s inclusion of same-sex families. After protests by Garden State Equality and fair-minded parents, it formed a review committee of educators, teachers, parents, and health curriculum experts. Tonight, the committee advised the Board to keep the film, but move it to 4th grade instead of 3rd. The Board rejected their entire recommendation.

Blue Jersey reports: Read the rest of this post »

Penguins Threaten Traditional Family Values

And Tango Makes Three, the children’s book based on a true story about two male penguins who adopt an abandoned egg, tops the American Library Association’s list of “10 Most Challenged Books of 2006,” “for homosexuality, anti-family, and unsuited to age group.” A challenge, according to the ALA, is “a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school, requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.” Other books on the list include Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Beloved, based on “sexual content and offensive language.”

As I’ve said before, it seems the right has felt particularly sensitive about penguins ever since they claimed March of the Penguins as an example of “traditional family values.”

Personally, I think it’s time for a March of the Penguins on Washington.

What’s your favorite book from the ALA list, this year or in the past?

Major Wins for Equality In Maine and Iowa

News too good to wait for my weekly update:

In a unanimous decision, Maine’s Law Court ruled that two foster children, 10-year-old “M” and her brother, six-year-old “R,” could be adopted by the lesbian couple who have raised them for the past six years. Equality Maine, in an e-mail to supporters, notes this is “the first time in Maine history that a same-sex couple can jointly adopt a child.”

They warn of a possible legislative effort to overturn the ruling, however. Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), who fought the case on behalf of the moms, offer evidence (PDF Link) of how ridiculous this would be: Read the rest of this post »

Happiest Gay Parents

The last two episodes of Rick and Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World took televised same-sex parenting where it’s never been before. First, Dana and Kirsten and Rick and Steve go on an LGBT cruise for some pre-parental bonding. While on board, Dana and Kirsten go through “Mommy Boot Camp,” a Lamaze class from hell and a well-deserved poke at “you must do this” parenting advice. To conclude the season, Dana experiences a personality-altering hormone surge, pads the entire house in order to babyproof it, and goes to the hospital where she gives birth to . . . .

A cliffhanger. Earlier in the episode, though, we learn she’s having a boy, so unless the creators have decided to make fun of ultrasound results, that’s not the big surprise. No word yet on a Season Two.

Happiest Gay Couple broke boundaries in many ways. It took a cruder look at the LGBT community than we usually see outside of comedy clubs, but one imbued with a deep love of the community it lampoons. It used LGBT parenting as a central theme for the main characters. (One could argue that Queer as Folk and The L Word did the same. It seems to me, though that parenting, while important to several of the couples on those shows, was never as central. Maybe it’s just that the larger casts and number of plotlines on those shows diluted the effect of the parenting threads.) Happiest Gay Couple also managed to integrate gay men and lesbians better than Queer as Folk, where Mel and Lindsey always seemed secondary to the boys. (Yes, Rick and Steve are the titular characters, but they clearly form a fundamental yin-yang with Dana and Kirsten.)

This is perhaps more serious analysis than I should give, for the main point of the show was to make us laugh, and it did. It may also have started a trend towards puppet-based shows featuring same-sex parents. The Henson Company, originator of the Muppets, is reportedly shopping around a pilot for a sitcom about a gay male couple in Hollywood who adopts a child. (Thanks to National Gay News.Com.) After Happiest Gay Couple, it would have to be pretty clever to be seen as anything but an imitator. Now, if Sesame Street’s newest Muppet, Abby Cadabby, had another mom (besides the Fairy Godmother who’s been mentioned to date), we’d really have something innovative. . . .

(Rick & Steve – The Complete First Season is now out on DVD, for those who can take the humor. Not for the young ‘uns, though, despite the resemblance to Legos.)

Parents Appealing Decision that Schools Can Teach About Same-Sex Families

Two sets of parents in Lexington, Massachusetts are appealing a U.S. District Court dismissal of their claim that the local public school district violated their constitutional rights by teaching their children about families headed by same-sex parents. The District Court judge had said (PDF link):

Public schools are entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens in our democracy. Diversity is a hallmark of our nation. It is increasingly evident that diversity includes differences in sexual orientation.

Bravo. He then added that the couples could always homeschool or send their children to private school, or ask the school to excuse their children when same-sex families are discussed in the classroom. They have no right, however, to dictate what the school district teaches. True enough, and I hope the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals finds no less when this case comes before them.

In saying that parents could have their children excused during discussions of same-sex families, however, the District Court judge missed the fact that, as I wrote in February when the case was first heard: Read the rest of this post »

Marriage Leads to Housework, At Least for Women

Married men say they do less housework than unmarried cohabiting men, according to a new international study published in the Journal of Family Issues. Cohabiting women, however, report doing less housework than married women, and cohabiting men still do less than cohabiting women. The lead author of the study, according to USA Today, says “the institution of marriage seems to have an effect on couples that traditionalizes their behavior, even if they view men and women as equals.”

Oh, great. So as same-sex couples are allowed to marry, gay men will start living in squalor while we gals will begin channeling June Cleaver?

Family Voices VIII

This week’s Family Voices interview is with lesbian moms Rachel and Sandy, who live in Washington state with their four children and co-parent with the biological dad of three of them. Below, they talk about their successful efforts to create safer schools and influence politicians, the benefits of co-parenting, being an egg donor to another family, staying authentic for our kids, teaching other children about our families, and the tribulations of car-ride arguments.

As with the previous families highlighted in this feature, they are members of the Family Pride Coalition’s OUTSpoken Families program, and committed to speaking with their local communities and media about their lives and the need for LGBT equality. Read the rest of this post »

Worth the Trip: Queer Books for Kids and Teens

One of my favorite parts of writing this blog is doing reviews of children’s and young adult books, especially those with LGBT themes. I admit, however, that there are those more versed in the far reaches of children’s literature than I. Kathleen T. Horning is one such person, and her week-old blog, Worth the Trip: Queer Books for Kids and Teens, promises to be a must-read site for LGBT parents, LGBT youth, and other older children and adults from LGBT families.

Horning is the director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, and her knowledge of children’s literature, LGBT and not, runs deep. Quick: Can you name the first gay novel specifically for teens? Horning can.

Based on her first few posts, she will be writing not only about LGBT-themed books but also about non-LGBT books that discuss LGBT issues, and books that should have included an LGBT angle but didn’t. Go give her a read—and refer your local librarians when they want to know what to order to fill in their LGBT collections.