“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 55

Helen and I take a retrospective look at a TV classic from our childhoods, Schoolhouse Rock!. We then answer a viewer’s question about how to handle racist and homophobic family members and how to talk about them with one’s children. On a lighter note, we tell you which of our ideas for a post-L Word lesbian TV series is shared by Jennifer Beals, and we promise to vlog about the upcoming L Word season with a parent’s eye.

Watch Mombian: She Got Me Pregnant, 01-15-09 in Family Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

(If the Veoh video above doesn’t work for you, try it at Dailymotion.)

Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.

How Prop 8 Hurts Families

“My six-year old, the day after we lost Prop 8, asked me, with tears running down his face, if we were still a family.” —Contra Costa County

Another Contra Costa parent explained, “My eight year old daughter heard many of those radio and TV ads, I can tell she is still reeling inside. We talk about it as she brings it up, but she just ran smack into discrimination, aimed at her on TV. That is a lot for me, it is way more than she needed to see.” Another parent shared, “My 7 year old son asked, ‘If the Yes people win, will you and Mama have to break up?’ Prior to this campaign, my children had no real understanding that we live in a culture that condemns our family, as our immediate community and their schools are supportive. It‟s not gay parents that hurt our kids, it is homophobia.”

I’ve written before about how Prop 8 has caused children to question whether their families will be torn apart, their parents forced to separate. That might be viewed as the histrionics of one or two people quoted in the papers—except now we have proof it’s not.

In the aftermath of Prop 8, the grassroots organization Marriage Equality USA received hundreds of stories, especially from LGBT youth and the children of LGBT parents, describing over 1,200 specific instances of how Prop 8 frightened them, promoted bullying in schools, and caused tensions and resentment among family members and neighbors, among other harms. They have compiled these into a report, “Prop 8 Hurt My Family – Ask Me How (PDF).”

Among the report’s conclusions: Read the rest of this post »

Thanks for Your Votes!

Many thanks to all who took the time to vote for Mombian as Best Large Blog in the 2008 Weblog Awards. I didn’t win (the honor went to Jammie Wearing Fool), but I wasn’t last, so I’m happy. All in good fun, and I got to peruse a bunch of new blogs.

Congratulations also to Towleroad for winning Best LGBT Blog (Bilerico was second, with a rally towards the end). 4tunate edged out Looky Daddy! for Best Parenting Blog, although it was neck-and-neck all the way. Grace the Spot tried valiantly for Best New Blog, but it was a tough category, with some weirdness from Wonkette, which tried to throw the category and get votes for one of the other competitors, as Grace explains.

What this really means, though, is I’ll stop urging you to vote. Back to our regularly scheduled programming . . . .

Google, YouTube, and Sperm Donation

What do Google, YouTube, and sperm donation have in common? The founders of the blockbuster Internet companies, along with Sherron Mills, the founder of Pacific Reproductive Services, a lesbian fertility clinic and sperm bank, were recently named top San Francisco innovators by 7×7 magazine. Read more about it at 365gay.com. (You can also read my older interview with Mills here.)

Final Reminder: Please Vote for Mombian in Weblog Awards

A final (thank heavens!) reminder to vote for Mombian as Best Large Blog in the 2008 Weblog Awards. I know I won’t win at this point, but I’d love to go out with a big rally.

Voting ends at 5:00 p.m. EST today.

I know the Weblog Awards site has been slow to unavailable at times with the heavy voting traffic. I appreciate those of you who persevered.

I also encourage you to vote for Bilerico as Best LGBT Blog and for a few more LGBT and allied blogs in other categories, as I described earlier.

Many thanks!

What’s On Your Mind?

Early Chapter Book Ideas?

Our kindergartener is starting to read more and more, and can make his way through “easy reader” books like The Cat in the Hat. We’re also trying to read to him from books that are a little beyond his own ability, but have the more complex plotlines and characters that capture his imagination now.

Among others, we’ve gone through:

• Charlotte’s Web, which we particularly like in the large-print (but unabridged) “Read-Aloud” edition (click the link); we’ll move on to E. B. White’s Stuart Little shortly.
• The Hobbit, which we abridge slightly as we go, because Tolkien, bless his medieval aesthetic, can be long-winded);
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, although the sequel is more dated, and we have to edit out stuff like the stereotyped Chinese characters talking with L’s instead of R’s;
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which he read with his class in school.

We’re looking for more ideas, though. Any suggestions from those of you with older kids, or who remember good beginning chapter books from your own childhood?

On a side note, although the number of LGBT-inclusive picture books is small, it seems huge in comparison to the number of LGBT-inclusive early chapter books. Clearly a gap to fill.

Gay Bishop to Speak at Inauguration Event

This just in: Not exactly parenting news, but at the heart of LGBT news this week, comes the announcement that openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson will give a prayer at one of President-elect Barack Obama’s first inauguration events at the Lincoln Memorial on January 20.

The Concord Monitor reports:

Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden will be there, and Obama is expected to speak, Robinson said. The event will be open to the public and run on HBO. Robinson doesn’t yet know what he’ll say, but he knows he won’t use a Bible.

“While that is a holy and sacred text to me, it is not for many Americans,” Robinson said. “I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer. This is a prayer for the whole nation.”

That is perhaps the most sensible statement I’ve heard yet about all this Inauguration. I’ve always been leery of the prayers and other religious trappings still used by our government, feeling they cross the line that should separate church from state. At least Robinson seems to recognize the variety of beliefs in our nation.

As for Obama: Yes, he screwed up. Warren has a record of bigotry and should not have been invited to give the invocation. The realist in me understands, though, that once the invitation was out there, it would have been extremely hard to withdraw, without alienating the evangelicals whose support Obama needs for his broad agenda.

Inviting Robinson to give a prayer at the Lincoln Memorial is not, perhaps, the ideal solution. I still think a variety of religious figures and secular philosophers giving the invocation would be best). It is nonetheless an important acknowledgment by President-elect Obama that he made a mistake and is attempting to make amends. More than that, it is a recognition of the power of the LGBT community to make change. President-elect Obama isn’t perfect, but he’s learning. I still have hope.