2009 Rainbow List of Children’s and Young Adult Books Is Out

The American Library Association’s 2009 Rainbow List of children’s and young adult books with “significant” LGBT content is now out!

I interviewed the chair of the Rainbow List Committee, Nel Ward, and the article has just appeared at 365gay.com. I can’t crosspost it yet but I hope some of you will go have a read over there.

I’ll refrain from saying much more here, except to briefly note that most of the books this year are about LGBT children and teens. Only one, Michael Harmon’s Last Exit to Normal, has an LGBT parent (a gay dad), and one, Sarah Brannen’s Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, has a character with a gay uncle. Books starring LGBT children and teens are vital, of course; it would just be nice to see more of a balance (and more books for young children, and . . . .) This is not the fault of the Rainbow List Committee; it’s that such books aren’t being published.

There’s also more at the Rainbow List Web site, including the news that Lesléa Newman, author of the classic Heather Has Two Mommies, has two new board books coming out later this year, Mommy, Mama, and Me and Daddy, Papa, and Me. (The publication information on the Rainbow List site is wrong, though; the books won’t be out until June, the publicist tells me.)

The full 2009 Rainbow List is after the jump. Starred books were selected for special recognition: Read the rest of this post »

Marriage Equality and the Protection of Children

First, I’m still accepting posts for the Freedom to Marry blogswarm. Submit your link here.

Here’s my contribution for “Something old,” an older article, about needing to break down old ways of thinking. It first appeared in slightly modified form at 365gay.com. Read the rest of this post »

Blog for Freedom to Marry Week: The Only Agenda Is Love

This is it! Add your post in support of Freedom to Marry Week to the form at the end of this post. You will help contribute to a blogosphere-wide education campaign about ways your readers can help promote fair legislation and rescind anti-equality measures.

We’re also offering some exciting prizes. For each post you write, up to a maximum of four, we’ll enter you into a contest for a $250 prize or one of three $100 prizes. (You must leave a valid e-mail address. Prizes will be awarded in Amazon.com online gift certificates.)

When posting, please try to include the blogswarm graphic in this post or one of the exciting graphics created for Freedom To Marry’s weeklong program, 7 Conversations in 7 Days. They are also located here.)

Please also include a link to Freedom to Marry’s event page for the week:

http://www.freedomtomarry.org/get_involved/freedom_to_marry_week_2009bl.php

If you prefer, this link will work also: http://tinyurl.com/ftmweek

Thanks and happy posting!
Dana Rudolph, Mombian
Mike Rogers, PageOneQ

After the jump is the master list of participating bloggers. I will be updating this throughout the day. (Newest posts will be at the bottom.) Read the rest of this post »

Join the Blogswarm: The Only Agenda Is Love

It’s another blogswarm!

This Monday, February 9, bloggers in the LGBT community and our allies will be participating in “The Only Agenda Is Love,” a blogswarm in support of Freedom to Marry Week. By being a part of this effort, you will help contribute to a blogsphere-wide education campaign about ways your readers can help promote fair legislation and rescind anti-equality measures. Read the rest of this post »

Weekly Political Roundup

• President Obama has appointed Alison J. Nathan, who is openly lesbian, as his associate counsel. Nathan was recently the Fritz Alexander Fellow at New York University School of Law and a visiting assistant professor at Fordham Law School. During the 2008 Presidential campaign, Nathan was the national voter protection senior advisor to the Obama campaign and a member of the campaign’s LGBT Advisory Committee.
• President Obama also named Fred Davie, the openly gay president of Public/Private Ventures, to serve on the Policy Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
• So far, so good, but some question Obama’s choice of Senator Judd Gregg for Commerce Secretary. Gregg opposed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation.
• The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional and found in favor of the same-sex spouse of a federal employee, saying he is entitled to the same spousal benefits as opposite-sex spouses. This follows a similar ruling last month that stopped short of ruling DOMA unconstitutional. The LA Times notes, however, “the rulings are legally meaningless for all but the two couples because they came in the court’s administrative dispute process, rather than in lawsuit judgments.” Read the rest of this post »

Introducing the Mombian YouTube Channel

You can now find over 50 videos (and counting!) for and about LGBT parents and our families all in one place at the new Mombian YouTube Channel.

Most of you know that finding appropriate videos about our families isn’t easy. (If you’ve ever searched YouTube for “lesbian moms,” you’ll find NSFW search results that probably aren’t what you want.) I’m therefore compiling a collection with realistic messages about our families.

The videos are a mix of clips from movie trailers, documentaries, advocacy groups, news coverage, children’s videos, and more. Some are commercial; some are personal. Some are ones I’ve highlighted before at Mombian; others are new finds.

The “She Got Me Pregnant” vlogs that Helen and I do are too long for YouTube, but they can all be found in the Mombian Archive or at Dailymotion.

If you you’d like to recommend any other videos for the channel, please leave a comment or drop me a note. Happy viewing!

(I have compiled the videos on YouTube for informational purposes only. They should not be considered an endorsement by me of the products, services, media, or persons depicted in them.)

“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 57

Helen and I congratulate the world’s first lesbian mom to become a head of state. We then turn to a viewer’s more personal question: How to deal with a pregnant partner’s hormonal mood swings. (“Run!” is a tempting but unacceptable answer.)

Although there were no parenting angles this week on The L Word, we use Max’s pregnancy to recommend a guidebook for transgender parents, one for parents of transgender children and the first-ever children’s picture book featuring a transgender child.

(Veoh seems to be having technical issues as they go through an upgrade, so Dailymotion is the only viewing option this week.)

Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.

Sheryl Swoopes Dropped by Storm

The Seattle Storm dropped basketball legend and lesbian mom Sheryl Swoopes from their roster this week, citing the league’s salary cap. (After Ellen reports that the NBA’s cap is $58 million per team, whereas WNBA teams have to make do with $803,000 per year.)

The three-time WNBA MVP and three-time Olympic gold medalist said she’s “disappointed,” and that her previous back injuries have now healed. If she still wants to play, I hope another team will pick her up. (I’m rooting for the Connecticut Sun, since they play closest to where I live.)

She’s keeping busy in the off season, though, coaching middle-school girls’ basketball with her partner Alisa Scott. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a great story of how she found the position through Craigslist:

“My name’s Sheryl,” she said in a voice mail to [athletic director John Wiley]. “Can you call me back?”

Not knowing who she was, Wiley called her and told her he was looking for people with playing and coaching experience.

“Well, I’ve played the game a little,” Swoopes told him, “and I’ve done some coaching of my son’s AAU team.

False humility or genuine modesty? I’m betting on the latter:

Swoopes was nervous the first day, allowing former coach Steve Meredith to run practice. “I chickened out, I did,” she said.

She didn’t want the players to call her “Coach” because that made her feel old, so she asked them to call her Sheryl.

Somehow, this makes me want to go work out tonight.

[Update: More breaking WNBA mom news, though without the lesbian twist: Three-time WNBA MVP and four-time Olympic gold medalist Lisa Leslie has announced she will retire after this coming season, in part because "I’m really passionate about raising a child and being there for her." Her former LA Sparks teammate Candace Parker, last year's league MVP and rookie of the year, will be taking the coming season off because she is expecting her first child in May.]