Archives › 2008 › November
More Gay Penguins Desperate to Parent
Another blow to the “it’s unnatural” argument against same-sex parents: Two male penguins at a zoo in China are so desperate to become parents that they are attempting to steal other penguins’ eggs and replace them with stones, reports Britain’s Daily Telegraph. The zookeepers have separated the pair from the rest of the group, but [...]
Happy Thanksgiving
Happy early Thanksgiving to all of you celebrating it tomorrow. Posting will be light for the rest of the week as I plan to spend it in a tryptophan-induced haze. If you want to get a jump on your holiday shopping, and like me, try to avoid anything within a five-mile radius of a mall [...]
New LGBT Adoption Awareness Campaign
All Children – All Families, a program of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation Family Project, yesterday launched a new awareness campaign aimed at increasing LGBT foster parenting and adoption. Nice timing, considering the ruling yesterday that struck down the ban on LGBT people adopting in Florida. HRC also informs us: “All Children – All Families, [...]
Breaking News: Florida Adoption Ban Ruled Unconstitutional
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman today declared Florida’s 30-year-old ban on adoption by gay men and lesbians unconstitutional, saying, “It is clear that sexual orientation is not a predictor of a person’s ability to parent.” ‘Bout time they realized that. State lawyers have already said they will challenge the decision. At the moment, however, it [...]
Children of Lesbian Families Happy and Healthy, Despite Homophobia
(Originally published in Bay Windows, August 20, 2008.) The 17-year-olds participating in the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS) “demonstrate significantly higher social competence” and “significantly lower total problem behavior [than the standard population]. This is a very high indication of mental health,” asserts Dr. Nanette Gartrell, principal investigator of the NLLFS and Associate Clinical [...]
Prop 8 Protests and Parenting
In our vlog last Thursday, Helen and I spoke about whether to take kids to the recent LGBT rallies and protests. I also wrote an article about kids and protests, which appeared today on 365gay.com. In it, I look not only at the question of whether to take kids (short answer: it depends on the [...]
LGBT Parenting Roundup
Yesterday’s Boston Globe had a front-page article on children looking for their anonymous sperm donors. While not specific to lesbian families, there are obvious connections. The article notes that at the end of October, a woman in Canada filed that country’s first class-action lawsuit on behalf of donor-conceived offspring, asking “that all donor records be [...]
Weekly Political Roundup
Officials with President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team named at least seven openly gay or lesbian people to transition panels. A coalition of 104 retired military generals and admirals has released a joint call to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and allow gay and lesbian members of the military to serve openly. At [...]
Mombian in Curve
The Mombian vlog, “She Got Me Pregnant,” got a mention in the December issue of Curve magazine. It’s just hitting newsstands now, and has Heather Matarazzo and Caroline Murphy on the cover. The article “Vlogging Killed the TV Star,” on page 70, says: Although YouTube is synonymous with the Internet’s vlog revolution, a more fruitful [...]
“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 50
Helen and I celebrate our 50th vlog this week with a big thank you to viewers. In a seasonal vein, we offer some tips on juggling kids and turkeys to make Thanksgiving go more smoothly, and Helen shares her favorite Thanksgiving craft. We then respond to a timely viewer question about whether to bring children [...]
Cause and Effect
See also under Locusts, Absence of. (Thanks, Wil.)
Transgender Day of Remembrance
Today marks the 10th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance: The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a [...]
Kindergarteners and Marriage Equality
Paige Schilt at Bilerico today reflects on what she calls “my latest obsession: insinuating gay marriage into the kindergarten curriculum.” It’s a wonderful tale about her son’s first foray into a classroom, and a great example of something I’ve been saying for some time (most recently at 365gay.com), that curriculum or no, children will learn [...]
TV Alert: Lesbian Moms on Discovery Health
Discovery Health will feature lesbian moms Karen and Janice tomorrow (Tuesday) on Five Under 5 at 8:00 p.m. ET. The moms have a four-year-old daughter and twin sons, and are preparing to welcome another set of twins. I feel exhausted just thinking about it—but they seem to be quite the happy family. If you want [...]
Five Years of Marriage Equality, No Locusts
Today marks the fifth anniversary of marriage equality in Massachusetts, and I’m happy to report no locusts have been spotted in the Bay State. This bodes well for GLAD’s plan to have all six New England states enact marriage equality by 2012. Helen and I are also celebrating our Massaversary today. We’ve been together for [...]
Healthy Fast Food Still On the Menu
We’re not a fast-food type of family. When I do need to stop for an on-the-road sort of meal, I’ll look first for a sandwich shop like Subway. My son likes a turkey sub with extra olives and pickles. I was delighted, therefore, to read that activist Mike Rogers (with whom I partnered for Write [...]
What’s Cooking?
Iron Chef and lesbian mom Cat Cora, in an interview with the Food Gal, has spoken out against Prop 8. She also mentions that she and her partner Jen Cora are expecting their third child in April. Congratulations! (Thanks, After Ellen.) This is as good an excuse as any to move from politics to domestic [...]
Cynthia Nixon on Marriage Equality and Stepparenting
It’s been a weekend of protests for the LGBT community. The New York Times, among other places covered them, as did most LGBT news channels. Pick your favorite; I won’t list them all here. Instead, I’m going to highlight the interview that actor and lesbian mom Cynthia Nixon did on Friday with Joy Behar, who [...]
Joining the Impact?
Going to one of the nationwide protests today? Join the Impact is collecting your stories, photos, and videos. If you post something there, please leave a link in the comments here, so we can go see what your experience was like.
Weekly Political Roundup
Dan Savage says the Arkansas ban against adoption or fostering by unmarried couples is even more of a threat to LGBT equality than the marriage bans: Most ominous, once “pro-family” groups start arguing that gay couples are unfit to raise children we might adopt, how long before they argue that we’re unfit to raise those [...]
“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 49
Helen and I celebrate this week’s season premiere of Top Chef with a vlog about teaching children to cook. We wield some of our favorite kid-friendly kitchen implements, offer tips on how to involve even the youngest tots, and share some of the many ways cooking can help children learn. We even let viewers in [...]
Prop 8: This Is How Bad It Is
Judith Warner wrote a spot-on column in the New York Times about the impact of California’s Prop 8 on several LGBT families she knows. About two gay dads, she says: They’d also had to go to parent conferences and tell the teachers that their five-year-old daughter, Liza, might be struggling in school because she was [...]
LGBT Parents: the Forgotten Voices of Prop. 8
(Originally published by Bay Windows, November 13, 2008.) Many are blaming the passage of California’s Prop 8 on black voters, 73 percent of whom supported the measure. People have, however, mostly ignored another group that voted in a significant majority for Prop 8: parents. Sixty-four percent of voters with children under 18 voted for it, [...]
Our Families Are Equal
In lieu of our “She Got Me Pregnant” vlog, which I will post tomorrow, here’s a video compiled by the Family Equality Council from images sent in by LGBT parents around the country, “declaring their families equal.” It’s become the eighth most-viewed video on YouTube this week in the Nonprofits & Activism category.
LGBT Parenting Roundup
[Our "She Got Me Pregnant" vlog will be posted tomorrow. Stay tuned. Back to Thursdays next week.] A few items of note from hither and yon: Thomas Beatie, the transgender man whose pregnancy made headlines, is expecting a second child, ABC News reveals. Beatie will be talking with Barbara Walters on 20/20 tomorrow night at [...]
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