Archives › 2008 › February
Weekly Political Roundup
The Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute has partnered with the National Conference of Black Political Scientists to increase the numbers of gay black political leaders. The groups have created the Bayard Rustin Award, named for the openly gay, African American civil rights leader who helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, to honor “outstanding contributions [...]
Involved, Invisible, Ignored: LGBT Parents and Their Children
The first comprehensive report on LGBT families’ experiences in education, Involved, Invisible, Ignored, has found that LGBT parents are more likely to be involved in their children’s K-12 education than the general parent population. At the same time, both LGBT parents and their children often report harassment because of their family structure. The report was [...]
The Return of the Penguin
The school superintendent of Loudoun County, Virginia may be changing his mind about removing And Tango Makes Three from elementary school library shelves. He now says he “exceeded the authority” given to him by the school board, reports the Washington Post. Since the challenge to the book only applied to the Sugarland Elementary School, it [...]
“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 17
Vlogging barefoot! Helen and I kick off our shoes and socks this week in honor of the k.d. lang concert we just attended, advise when not to sport a fauxhawk, and then discuss some financial ideas for parents. Thinking about starting a family or already planning for your childrens’ college educations? We share what’s worked [...]
Anti-Gay Couple Rejected as Foster Parents
Here’s a situation we wouldn’t see here in the U.S.: A couple in the U.K. was refused permission to become foster parents after they told a panel that their [Christian] belief would prevent them from addressing a child’s homosexuality in a positive light.” The panel rejected their application, citing the recent Sexual Orientation Act that [...]
Do We Really Need This?
Neither my son nor this blog would be here without the benefit of modern technology, and for that (mostly the former), I am grateful. I’m a minimalist when it comes to childcare technology, however, although I’ve found a baby monitor to be a useful gadget. The New York Times, however, takes a look at several [...]
Conservatives and Liberals Bond Over Liberal Arts
While we’re on the subject of education, a survey by the new research and advocacy group Common Core shows “a significant proportion of teenagers live in ‘stunning ignorance’ of history and literature.” The organization says “The No Child Left Behind Act has increased the amount of time schools devote to basic reading and math skills, [...]
New Free Donor Registry
There’s a new online registry for donor-conceived children, their parents, and sperm, egg, or embryo donors to find each other. Donor Offspring Matches (DOM) has just launched as an alternative to the older Donor Sibling Registry (DSR). DOM has one advantage over DSR, though: it is free, whereas DSR charges $40 per year. Is this [...]
The Importance of Play
Children need to play. Oh, that’s obvious, you say—but according to NPR’s Alix Spiegel, children today need more “freewheeling imaginative play,” as opposed to structured enrichment classes or play centered around single-purpose toys. I’ve long felt this; one of the many reasons my son has my 25-year-old Legos rather than today’s versions. (OK, there’s some [...]
Stories that Must Be Told: Transparent
First, Lawrence King, then Simmie Williams, Jr., gender-nonconforming teens shot to death in the last three weeks. Both shootings appear to be hate crimes. Yet Lawrence King was not the first, as the long list of names honored during the Transgender Day of Remembrance and in the Wikipedia entry for Violence Against LGBT People makes [...]
Awesome Oscar Moment for Freeheld
OK, this could be possibly the most awesome moment I’ve seen at the Academy Awards in a long time. Freeheld, the documentary about New Jersey police Lt. Laurel Hester’s fight to receive pension benefits for her partner, Stacie Andree, when Hester was diagnosed with terminal cancer, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject. It [...]
Help Win Marriage Equality in California
Passing along this request from Lambda Legal. They’re looking for gay and lesbian couples in California willing to be contacted by the media the day of oral arguments in the California marriage case (scheduled for March 4). They want couples in all media markets, and note that you would not have to do anything or [...]
Weekly Political Roundup
Could gay superdelegates make the difference in the Democratic presidential nomination? Writer Lisa Keen explains why, and also looks at how ordinary LGBT voters may have an impact on the race. A long piece, but a good overview of the situation. The U.S. State Department lifted the ban on hiring people with HIV to be [...]
How Would You Teach Tolerance?
After 15-year-old Lawrence King was shot to death by a fellow student because he was gay, California Assemblyman Mike Eng proposed a new bill to “establish school diversity and sensitivity training to help prevent such tragedies in the future.” According to Gay Wired, “The new bill would require mandatory classes on diversity and tolerance in [...]
“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 16
Helen and I start our vlog this week by explaining the difference between parenthood and lesbian Turkish oil wrestling. Our main topic, however, is storytelling. We discuss the surreal and whimsical works of Caldecott-winning author David Wiesner, which force parents to become storytellers, and recommend a book featuring a boy with two moms that celebrates [...]
Oh, You Mean They’re Having Kids, Too?
Oregon moms Sally Sparks and Heather Dugas had their second child on February 10, 2008, six days after they registered as domestic partners under the state’s new law. At the hospital, however, they ran into administrative complications. The clerk did not put Dugas, the non-biological mom, on the birth certificate, but instead gave her a [...]
Today Show Features Boy with Two Dads
NBC’s Today Show ran a piece Monday featuring an eleven-year-old boy with two dads. It’s one of few mainstream stories in which we hear the perspective of the child him- or herself. It’s also exceptional in that it shows a divorced family; Henry’s dads broke up after they adopted him. Henry is doing well, however, [...]
Show Your Kids the Lunar Eclipse Tonight
If you can keep your kids up till 10:01 p.m. EST tonight (and still maintain their sanity and yours tomorrow), you can share with them the rare occurrence of a total lunar eclipse, the last one until December 2010. Both Sky and Telescope and NASA have details on the event, which should be visible in [...]
Last Dottie Giveaway
That Pesky Penguin
Yet another school district has made a fuss over And Tango Makes Three, the book about the chick hatched by two male penguins, and the American Library Association’s Most Challenged Book of 2006. The school superintendent of Loudoun County, Virginia, has instructed county elementary schools to take the book out of general circulation and move [...]
What Do You Represent?
I love today’s XKCD comic: Two thoughts come to mind here, other than the obvious feminist point the author is making: How this attitude is reflected in some people’s reactions to both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (substitute “women” or “blacks” for “girls”); How this attitude also applies to LGBT parents and our children, who [...]
How Do You Explain the President?
No, not W., although I do think we need an explanation of how someone who can’t say “nuclear” correctly made it to the Oval Office. How do you explain the president to young children? We’ve been telling our preschooler “The president is the person the people in our country choose to help lead the country.” [...]
Weekly Political Roundup
Arizona Senator Paula Aboud (D-Tucson) said her state should extend marriage benefits to same-sex couples. She is a sponsor of a domestic partnership bill that would give registered domestic partners the same rights as married couples, regardless of their sexual orientation. The bill is not yet scheduled for a committee hearing. Two conservative groups in [...]
Shooting and Singing
Lawrence King, a 15-year-old eighth grader, was declared brain dead after being shot by a fellow student in what police are calling a hate crime. King was gay and often came to school in feminine clothing and makeup. This churns my stomach. I don’t need to tell readers here of the pervasiveness of anti-LGBT bullying [...]
Some/thing Blue
For my third contribution to Robin Reagler’s blog carnival, here’s Some/thing Blue: the Web site of Donor Home Delivery. A reader wrote to ask if I knew anything about this company. The Web site says it helps couples with distant known donors ship sperm safely from one place to another, ensconced in a “test yolk [...]
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