Share a Photo to Help Utah Families

Want to help same-sex and other unmarried families in Utah in their fight for adoption rights? Chicory over at An Accident of Hope is preparing a banner for a rally and wants to include photos representing the almost 1300 children affected by the lack of rights. She explains:

If you’re willing to let a picture of your kid be on our banner to stand in for a child in Utah whose picture we can’t get, we would be unspeakable grateful. There will be no names attached to the banner, just pictures of anonymous kids. We’re looking for headshots, with minimal detail so the impact of kidness comes through.

She’d like the photos tonight, so if you want to participate, go upload the photos to her Flickr group or e-mail them to anaccidentofhope [at] inbox [dot] com.

Single-Mom Blogging

If you’re a single mom or potential single mom of any orientation, or even a partnered lesbian looking for insight and advice on getting pregnant, you should put Louise Sloan’s Knock Yourself Up (reviewed here in December) on your reading list.

If you’ve already read her stuff and liked it, or want to get a taste for her style, you can now find her blogging at Huffington Post. She’s already offered her thoughts on whether helping lesbians inseminate means the end of fatherhood as we know it, and on some of the practical issues involved with being a single mom, like dismembering Christmas trees, killing goldfish (albeit by accident), and still staying in shape.

“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 13

This week in our video blog, Helen and I rant about “Evil Lesbian Moms,” bemoan the Cashmere Mafia’s tired storyline about sperm-seekin’ lesbians, and tell you why in fact a show about two straight, philandering, male plastic surgeons—Nip/Tuck—has some of the most intriguing portrayals of lesbian parents on television. On a brighter note, we recommend a children’s book series described as a cross between “Hello Kitty” and “Star Trek.” It’s sure to please young ones, but may also appeal to adults with an interest in graphic design and breaking gender stereotypes. Our four-year-old even offers a guest opinion! Plus gender-indeterminate penguins, lesbian-mom trivia, and wild unsubstantiated speculation about Leisha Hailey!

Online Videos by Veoh.com

(Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.)

If the Veoh video above isn’t working (sometimes their server can be flaky), you can try it at Daily Motion, though the picture quality isn’t as good there.

lnternational LGBT Parenting Roundup

A few parenting pieces from around the world:

• Teachers and school administrators in Britain now have new guidance on combating homophobia and reducing anti-gay bullying in schools. LGBT-rights group Stonewall produced the guidance for the government and released it last September, although the official launch was this week. It’s all sensible stuff, like explaining different family configurations, not assuming all children have a mom and a dad, and not using phrases like “that’s so gay.” In the U.S., HRC is piloting a Welcoming Schools program with a similar set of guidelines—though the government support around here is, shall we say, a wee bit less? The full UK guidance is at TeacherNet; HRC’s is at their Welcoming Schools site.
• In Canada, Capital Xtra writer Marcus McCann asks if LGBT families will feed welcomed or marginalized by the Ontario’s new statutory holiday, Family Day. An interesting exploration of the meaning of family.
• In India, Gujarat’s gay prince of Rajpipla, Manavendrasinh Gohil, says he wants to adopt a child and make him the royal heir, saying that many royal families in India have done so. The Times of India cites a lawyer who notes that although there are no known cases of single gay men adopting children in India, the prince should face no legal obstacles.

Nation’s First Lesbian, African-American Mayor Also a Mother and Grandmother

E. Denise Simmons received a lot of press coverage last week when she took office in Cambridge, Massachusetts as the nation’s first openly lesbian, African-American mayor.

What wasn’t revealed in the first round of press coverage was that she is also the mother of four and the grandmother of three. The Boston EDGE just published an interview with her, in which she praises Cambridge’s accepting atmosphere: “My children can go to school feeling that it’s OK to refer to their two moms, without people folding up like a fan.”

The article also notes her 10 years on the Cambridge School Committee, and her role in establishing an LGBT Family Liasion to communicate between schools and LGBT families. Now, she also wants to “find ways to coordinate the City’s child services . . . to best provide a suite of fully encompassing programs and attentions aimed at fostering the overall development of the child.” She also plans to continue her leading role with the city’s GLBT commission.

Simmons will doubtless have an impact beyond the areas of LGBT rights, schools, and child services. Her Web site covers her positions on public safety, housing, economic development, and civic participation. Still, it seems clear that her experience as both a lesbian and a mother influences her work, and that can only be a good thing.

An End Run Around ENDA?

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. and the New York City Pension Funds today called on two dozen major corporations, including ExxonMobil, to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Comptroller’s office says this is nearly twice as many proposals as in the previous proxy season, and the second season in which all new measures include gender identity.

After the ENDA debacle last year, it is refreshing to see gender identity part of a push for widespread employment anti-discrimination measures. Not that federal protections aren’t still necessary, but I think there’s value in taking gains where we can. Bit by bit, we’ll show that equality for the entire LGBT spectrum isn’t something to fear.

Will the Pension Funds’ pressure work? Hard to tell at this point, but according to the press release:

Shareholder support for the proposal has increased in each subsequent year it has been filed: in 2007, it was supported by 37.7 percent of shares voted; in 2006, it was supported by 34.6 percent of shares voted; and in 2005, it was supported by 29.4 percent. . . .

The resolutions build on proposals submitted by the Pension Funds for more than a decade asking dozens of Fortune 500 companies to adopt policies that explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

To date, 50 companies have amended their policies to include protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity. During the last proxy season alone, eight companies agreed to adopt explicit prohibitions against workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

This year, management at six of the companies has already agreed to adopt the changes, and the Comptroller’s Office has since withdrawn those resolutions.

What’s even more interesting? Besides Thompson, the New York City Pension Funds’ trustees include Mayor Michael Bloomberg, rumored to be considering an independent presidential bid. Will he step up to the plate with a better LGBT-rights platform than the other candidates—and if so, is this the worst thing that could happen to the left, a la Ralph Nader’s bid in the 2000 election? Or will the LGBT community not forgive him for his 2005 decision to appeal a lower court ruling declaring same-sex marriage legal within New York City?

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Up and Down the Family Tree

As a counterpoint to my piece on the children of LGBT servicemembers, have a read of Deb Price’s piece on the parents of LGBT servicemembers. She rightly says “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell doesn’t just hurt gay men and women in uniform. Congress needs to hear first-hand about the pain it causes their moms and dads.”

And their children.

Cat Cooks for Kids

Iron Chef Cat Cora appears in this month’s Parents magazine (and on their Web site), talking about cooking for her two young sons. Her youngest, at eight months, gets jarred organic food, and her four-year-old gets whatever everyone else is having. “I attribute his good eating habits, at least in part, to the fact that I hardly ever make a special meal for him.” Her other trick is to get her eldest involved in food preparation. I’ll confirm that both tips worked well with my son (and I’ll cut Cat some slack for not wanting to make her own baby food after spending all day in a kitchen). Here are my own ideas for how kids can help in the kitchen.

Cat’s partner Jennifer is shown in the background of one photo (in print, not on Parents.com, though Celebrity Baby News has a scan). Jennifer isn’t mentioned in the article, however, so unless you know it’s her, you might think she was Cat’s sister. Not that there needed to be a lot about her—the article was about Cat and food—but a mention in the caption would have been nice. Another sign of ambivalence towards lesbian moms by Parents.com, which got rid of the only lesbian mom blogger in their stable, Harlyn Aizley, after only six months? (Harlyn now has her own home on the Web.)

LGBT Parenting Roundup

A bevy of parenting-related articles, collected for your reading pleasure:

• Miss Washington, Elyse Umemoto, one of the contenders for the Miss America title, stated on a pre-pageant reality show that she supports same-sex marriage because “she has both a mother and a stepfather . . . and a father and a stepfather,” as After Elton reports.
• Jessica Cohn-Kleinberg, a daughter of lesbian moms, writes at “>Express Gay News of not getting a chance to talk during a Florida hearing on gay adoption, and notes “I am a good person — not despite the fact that my parents are gay but because my parents are gay. Growing up in a family that is a little different from normal has allowed me to be so much more tolerant and open minded.” She gives her take on the hearing, and concludes “I knew change was coming because I understood, there in that room, that there are too many voices screaming for justice now. And these voices are gaining volume by the minute, so before long they won’t be able to be ignored.”
• The Salt Lake Tribune published a heartfelt letter from lesbian non-bio mom Trista (who blogs at An Accident of Hope), calling for the state to permit unmarried, co-habitating adults to adopt children.

Two Moms and Ten Thousand LEGOs

Fifty years ago today, Ole Kirk Christansen received approval for his patent of the original LEGO brick, as Boing Boing reminds us. We’re huge fans of the plastic pieces around our house. LEGOs were one of the formative toys of my childhood, especially after my brother brought home several paper grocery bags full of them as part of an after-school program that had struck a deal with the company.

Now, my son has inherited the ancestral collection, and is being very gracious about my tendency to get wrapped up in my own creations when he wants my help pulling apart two flat pieces. Helen, ever the engineer, whips up four-stroke engines with the gears. If I ever write a memoir, I think I’ll call it “Two Moms and Ten Thousand LEGOs.”

Happy birthday, LEGO bricks! You may get between my toes when I walk through the family room without looking down, but I still love you.