Archives › 2007 › October
Will Massachusetts Legalize Robot-Human Marriage?
As we all know, it’s a slippery slope. If you legalize marriage for same-sex couples, then marriage between humans and robots is soon to follow. Well, not exactly. Human-robot love is inevitable, however, and could first become legal in Massachusetts, according to Dr. David Levy of the University of Maastricht. In his Ph.D thesis, as [...]
A Babe by Any Other Name
Those of you starting or adding to your families may want to check out the Baby Name Map, a Google Maps mashup that shows you the popularity of baby names in the U.S., Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, and the U.K. (Thanks to Lifehacker for the tip. They also mention NameVoyager, which displays the history of [...]
Weekly Political Roundup
This evening, HRC released the following statement regarding ENDA: The Human Rights Campaign has collaborated with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to craft a solution to the controversy surrounding the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Today, in a meeting with HRC and other gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy groups, Speaker Pelosi took an unprecedented step and committed [...]
Give the American Library Association Your Recommendations for LGBTQ Children’s Books
Hot on the heels of Banned Books Week comes the news that the American Library Association is seeking to create a list of recommended LGBTQ-themed children’s books. From Worth the Trip: The ALA’s Social Responsibilities Round Table and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgendered Round Table are combining forces to create a Rainbow List of recommended [...]
LGBT Family on Oprah Tomorrow
Set your VCR’s and Tivo’s. From an e-mail to supporters by Steven Goldstein, Chair, Garden State Equality: On Friday, October 12th, Garden State Equality Board member Denise Brunner, her wife Fran and their kids Jessica, Scott and Alyssa—all very active members in Garden State Equality—will be the guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show, seen at [...]
It’s Elementary, 10 Years Later
(Originally published in Bay Windows, October 11, 2007.) “It definitely surprised me,” says director Debra Chasnoff of the decision by the Evesham, New Jersey school district to exclude her documentary That’s a Family from its curriculum, after a handful of parents objected to its inclusion of gay and lesbian families. In the film, elementary school [...]
All of Us, Every One of Us
I’m posting below (with permission) an op-ed by Matt Foreman, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. In it, he brings us up to date with what NGLTF has been doing to push for a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that includes protections for gender identity and expression. Not all [...]
Parents and Children, Coming Out Together
Today is National Coming Out Day. Most of us who are LGBT have stories to tell—good, bad, exciting, or boring—about our own coming out. It’s something of a relationship marker, in fact. I know I’ve reached a certain level of friendship with someone when we start telling each other our coming out tales. Being a [...]
Blog Action Day 2007
October 15 is Blog Action Day, a time for bloggers to unite in support of one issue for a single day. This year, the theme is “The Environment.” The event is similar in structure to the Blogging for LGBT Families Day I’ve held for the past two years in June. Just blog about the topic [...]
New Site for LGBT Parents to Share Autism-Spectrum Information
Lesbian mom April has just launched Rainbow Spectrum, a site for GLBTQ families to share information about autism spectrum disorders. It’s still in the early stages, but she’s hoping it will grow as word spreads. Here’s what she tells us: I started Rainbow Spectrum to address a need that our family has, namely to share [...]
Family Pride Coalition Grows Into Family Equality Council
The Family Pride Coalition has today changed its name to the Family Equality Council (FEC) and launched a new Web site. Many of us are familiar with Family Pride from their work coordinating Family Week in Provincetown and organizing LGBT families to attend the White House Egg Roll. David Jacques, eCommunications Coordinator for FEC, below [...]
How Wide Was the Stance on that Peacock?
First penguins, then swans and flamingos—now peacocks. A headline-making British baronet, Sir Benjamin Slade, claims his pet peacock is gay, causing the bird to claw a visitor’s Lexus in a fit of passion: “It started when he fell in love with this Lexus, which was in a very distinct peacock blue and looked like another [...]
Family Voices XI
Continuing my Family Voices series with the second post by a member of COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere). Below, Jonathan shares a bit of his “lovably bizarre” family, talks about his experience as the son of a transgender father, and reminds us of the importance of keeping a sense of humor. Tell us [...]
Victory for Same-Sex Families in Oregon
Some good news to start the week: By a mere 116 names, opponents of Oregon’s new same-sex domestic partnership law did not turn in enough valid signatures to suspend the measure and place it on the November 2008 ballot. This means the law will take effect next year, giving registered partners equal state rights related [...]
Same-Sex Parents, Money, Marketing, and Influence
New studies from the Williams Institute at UCLA have shown that same-sex parents in Illinois, Michigan and Rhode Island have “significantly” lower average and median incomes than opposite-sex married parents in those states. (I’ve omitted exact numbers for ease of reading; you can find them in the original reports, however. Thanks to Gay Wired for [...]
And Now a Word from Our Allies
Tonight begins the first of Seven Straight Nights for Civil Rights, a coordinated campaign of overnight vigils led by straight allies across the nation who will “come out” as supporters of equal rights for LGBT Americans. Atticus Circle and Soulforce are organizing the events, important opportunities to show that support for LGBT rights extends beyond [...]
Weekly Political Roundup
There’s no ENDA news about ENDA, which means I still have lots of fodder for bad puns. The latest is that Lambda Legal has put out a statement (PDF link) in response to Representative Barney Frank’s (D-MA) criticism of Lambda’s analysis of the revised ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act). Among other things, they say Frank minimized [...]
Eat, Drink, and Be Worried
A few items of note: Drink milk. Overall, children in the U.S. are not consuming the recommended amount of dairy products, and the ones they do consume are too high in fat. Eat fish. New recommendations from 14 physicians and a number of leading professional and governmental groups say pregnant and breast-feeding women should eat [...]
Checking Assumptions
A second guest post by Mary W. Foulk, a writer, new mom, and lesbian film critic, whose work has appeared at Lesbian Life, among other places. Last Sunday, Alyson and I attended a friend’s birthday party. Prior to the event, I found myself really anxious about going. My concern—that we would be the only gay [...]
Book Review: grl2grl
(Originally published in Bay Windows, October 4, 2007.) Tales for Teens and Those Who Have Been Julie Anne Peters’s novel Between Mom and Jo, about a boy whose moms are breaking up, won last year’s Lambda Literary Award in the Children’s/Young Adult category. In her latest work, grl2grl: short fictions (Little, Brown) she shows us [...]
Rainbow Family Camp in November
For most of us in colder climes, camping season is drawing to a close. If you’re lucky enough to live near or be visiting Los Angeles, however, you have the opportunity not only to eat freshly roasted marshmallows in November, but to do so in the company of other LGBT families. The L.A. Gay and [...]
CHIPping Away at Our Families
It’s disappointing, but not surprising, that President Bush vetoed a bipartisan bill to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). There’s lots of coverage about this in the mainstream press right now. Jennifer Vanasco of Visible Vote ’08, however, makes the excellent point: The news is especially bad for gay parents. Why? Well, The National [...]
Signs of Progress
There’s always a first time. I was with my son at his school playground last week, taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to hang with the other parents and kids at the end of the day. My son wandered over to the sandbox, where another boy his age was playing. They introduced themselves in [...]
First Gay Man to Have a Heavenly Body
Now there’s a headline I never thought I’d be writing on this site. I wanted to note, however, that George Takei, aka Star Trek’s Hikaru Sulu, now has an asteroid named after him. This makes him perhaps the first out gay man (or out LGBT person, for that matter) to be given such an honor [...]
Book Review: BOB Books – Set 1
The BOB Books, by Bobby Lynn Maslen, is a series for beginning readers originally published in the 1970′s. Unlike other early primers such as the Dick and Jane books, however, these seem as fresh today as when they first appeared. Part of the reason for this is that the stories are extremely simple. “Mat Sat. [...]
