Live from New York

I’ve spent Inauguration Day in transit between Boston and New York in preparation for my keynote at the Working Mother “L-Moms and Allies Breakfast,” catching most of the ceremony in the departure lounge. I wrote up my thoughts for now-President Obama a few days ago, though, so I am therefore taking today just to revel in the possibilities.

I will observe, however, that the LGBT-rights portion of the Obama Transition Team site, Change.gov, has made it successfully over to Whitehouse.gov. Let’s commit to working with President Obama to realize this vision of LGBT rights, even if there are areas where we would like eventually to go further (marriage!) and times when we need to correct his mistakes (Rick Warren).

L Word Prize Pack Giveaway

Lesbian attention this week is split between the Inauguration and the new season of The L Word. If you’ve been busy reading political blogs and missed the first episode of Season Six, you can watch it free at Join Showtime.

If you missed Season Five, however, or want to watch it again, here’s your chance to win not only an L Word Season Five DVD box set, but also an L Word trucker hat and wine bottle charm, courtesy of a marketing firm working with Showtime.

The prize pack will go to the first person who leaves a comment with the correct answer to the following puzzle. Please note rules and restrictions below. Read the rest of this post »

Inauguration in Legos

We love us some Legos here at the Mombian household, and have played with little else since our son received a few new sets over the holidays.

Still, I am humbled by the Legoland California recreation of President Obama’s Inauguration.

I didn’t spot a little (B)Rick Warren, but I may go build one myself and then disassemble it. Cathartic.

A Lesbian Mom’s Letter to Obama

I wrote a letter to President-elect Obama with some thoughts about his upcoming presidency from my perspective as a lesbian mom. I can’t speak for all of us, but I hope some of my ideas find resonance.

The letter also ran as my column in 365gay.com last week. I can’t crosspost it yet, but since it seems relevant to this Inaugural week, I hope you’ll go read.

Gay Parenting Hip Hop Video

This awesome hip hop video about being a lesbian mom, “Gay Parenting: aka I’ve Got You,” by Mélange Lavonne, is now part of Logo TV’s Top 10 Videos Click List. Go vote for it to make sure it stays there!

The song is part of Lavonne’s CD The Movement. The CD rocks, if you’re into hip hop, but be warned not all of it is appropriate for children. Lavonne will also be featured in the March 2009 issue of Spin magazine.

Banding Together: Help the Lesbian and Gay Band Association

For the first time, an LGBT band will be participating in a presidential Inaugural Parade.* Blogger Mike Rogers of PageOneQ is organizing a blog action this weekend in support of the band, who must, like others, pay their own way to DC. Please consider making a donation to the band and/or posting about this effort on your blogs.

You may use any of the beautiful banners produced by Mike Tidmus, if you like. Please link them to:

http://tinyurl.com/dcparade

(By using the TinyURL, they will be able to track how many donations came from this blogger effort.)

If helping the band isn’t itself good enough, send the link to your post to mrogers@p1nm.com and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate.

(*Journalist Lisa Keen notes in Bay Windows, however, that the L&G Band was invited in 1993 by the Clinton Inaugural Committee, but performed on the side of the parade route, not in the parade itself.)

Weekly Political Roundup

• During the 1996 Illinois Senate race, Barack Obama asserted, “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages,” a distinct change from his current position.
• The Washington Blade reports that three more openly LGBT people will serve in the Obama administration, David Medina, as deputy chief of staff for Michelle Obama, Dave Noble, as the White House’s liaison to NASA, and Karine Jean-Pierre, as White House liaison to the Department of Labor.
• John Berry, the openly gay current director of the National Zoo, will serve as director of the Office of Personnel Management. This would seem to imply that managing federal workers is akin to managing monkeys and alligators—but it also makes Berry the highest openly gay official in the federal government. Read the rest of this post »

Proof that Homosexuality Harms Kids

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the attacks on Campbell’s Soup by the American Family Association, after the soup company produced a series of ads featuring two lesbian moms and ran them in the Advocate.

Now, the AFA is urging its supporters to see if their children’s schools participate in Campbell’s 30-year-old “Labels for Education” program, whereby the company makes donations of educational equipment to schools in exchange for soup labels collected by parents. To date, the company has donated over $100 million worth of merchandise. If schools participate in the program, the AFA says, parents should ask them to stop, because the company “openly supports homosexual marriage.” (Never mind that marriage is never mentioned in the ads, and the ads were targeted at an LGBT audience. Not that it should matter even if they were in a mainstream publication.)

Finally we see: Without any other proof that homosexuality harms kids, the AFA has decided to cause that harm itself by cutting off much-needed donations of resources to schools.

Waiter, there’s a bigot in my soup . . . .

(Thanks, Good As You.)