Doodle 4 Google

The folks at the big G are holding a “Doodle 4 Google” competition, and want K-12 students to play around with the Google homepage logo to see what new designs they come up with. The competition is open to all students in U.S. schools from kindergarten to grade 12 (including private schools and all homeschoolers).

This year, the theme is “What I Wish for the World.” Google says:

These are exciting times and both our country and the world are on the brink of significant change. At Google we believe in thinking big, and dreaming big, and we can’t think of anything more important than encouraging students to do the same.

Seems like a few of our kids might have ideas about that topic (Even Julianne Moore says LGBT families have a history of activism.)

You have to be a teacher (including homeschooling parents) or school employee to register, so pass the info along as you see fit. If your school has a gay-straight alliance, perhaps the faculty advisor might be interested (though there are plenty of worthy ideas outside the LGBT arena as well).

Full rules and details at the “Doodle 4 Google” site.

Registration closes at 11:59:59 PM Pacific time on March 17, 2009 and entries are due by 11:59:59 PM Pacific time on March 31, 2009.

Non-Bio Moms Sought

Passing this along at the request of Art Sweet. A friend of hers is seeking non-biological mothers to take a survey for her master’s thesis.

If you have any questions about this, click through to the survey, click “Agree” on the first page if you meet the criteria, and you will find further contact information. (Not trying to hide anything; just want to make it harder for spammers to swipe her e-mail address.)

I would like to ask for your help in finding participants for my Master of Social Work thesis research on anonymous donor preferences of non-genetic mothers. I am excited to have this opportunity to give voice to the experiences of women starting families in this way.

Participants in my research must meet the following criteria:

(a) self identify as a woman partnered with another woman,
(b) neither woman in the partnership has previous children (i.e., through birth, foster-care, adoption, or step-parenting),
(c) participants have selected an anonymous [id release okay] sperm donor in the past 36 months, and
(d) participants are not be the genetic (i.e. egg/ovum) parent.

The research consists of answering an anonymous online survey which takes about 30 minutes. The survey can be found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=WeKJ3vzrhjjQzXxpNd9Szg_3d_3d

I encourage you to forward this information to any friends, family members, and other professional or personal contacts who might be eligible to participate.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions about this research.

Thank you in advance for your time.

LGBT Parenting Roundup

Assorted recent news about LGBT families:

• California’s KNBC-TV refused to air an ad during the Super Bowl from GetToKnowUsFirst.org, featuring a gay family. They say the NFL Legal Department considered the ad “advocacy,” and would not let it run. During the Presidential Inauguration, California’s KABC-TV refused to run the ad for the same reason (although the media buyer for GetToKnowUsFirst’s ad agency claimed the station wouldn’t run it since “many families will be watching.”).
• The 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that California Lutheran High School, as a private, religious organization, can exclude students based on sexual orientation. The school expelled two girls in 2005 because of an alleged lesbian relationship.
• Ron Huberman, president of the Chicago Transit Authority and previously Chief of Staff for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, was appointed CEO of Chicago Public Schools. The big deal? Huberman is openly gay.
• Over in Boston, Rev. Gregory Groover, the new chair of the Boston School Committee, said he is committed to making Boston schools welcoming for all students, families and staff, including LGBT people, despite having once been part of a coalition that opposed marriage equality. Read the rest of this post »

I’m a Lezzy

. . . or at least I’ve been nominated for one. The Lesbian Lifestyle blog is hosting its annual lesbian blog awards, The Lezzys, all this month, and one (or more) of you kind readers has thrown Mombian’s virtual hat into the ring.

That means I need more nominations to make it into the final round. If you are so inclined, click here and enter www.mombian.com in the categories you choose. (Parenting/Wedding seems the obvious one, although I also segue into Politics; Best Overall if you really want to make my day, although I doubt I stand a chance there.)

You may nominate Mombian once every 24 hours until February 9th. (As in the Weblog Awards, frequent voting/nomination helps.) Voting on the three finalists in each category will run from February 11th to the 18th.

Be sure to nominate other blogs in other categories, too: Read the rest of this post »

Julianne Moore Gets LGBT Families

Actor and mom Julianne Moore just did a video interview with the Advocate to promote her Valentine’s Day project with Save the Children, selling cards designed by top children’s illustrators to raise money for fighting poverty in America. Along the way, she talks about engaging children in social change, how LGBT families in particular have a history of activism and charitable giving, and how she’s bringing her own kids up with a healthy dose of reality about LGBT families:

That’s the other thing about my children growing up in New York is that, for them, you can be married to a girl or a boy. . . . That’s been a given since preschool because there are plenty of gay families in New York City. . . . You can say as much as you’d like, and say this is how the world is, but when they walk out and see it and they know that Ethan has two moms, and that Jackson has two dads . . . . Kids are able to handle everything, anything, as long as it’s exampled for them.

(Bonus trivia: Both Moore and never-quite-come-out lesbian mom Jodie Foster played FBI Agent Clarice Starling, in Hannibal and The Silence of the Lambs, respectively.)

Lullabies from Erin Lee and Marci

Children’s musicians Erin Lee and Marci bring us the next of their regular posts with thematic recommendations for kid-friendly music, plus activities to make the songs an interactive experience for the whole family.

I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album image or name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.)

We spend an awful lot of time on the road (we’re just back from Chicago!), and that means an awful lot of hotel rooms. It also means different time zones, different beds, and different Going-To-Bed routines which adds up to an awful lot of . . . not sleeping. Even grownups have problems falling asleep some nights. So why is it that lullabies often seem to be for babies? We need lullabies too! So we went in search of some sleep songs for big kids, and here is what we found: Read the rest of this post »