Why the Iowa Decision Is Good for Children

Why is the Iowa marriage decision good not only for same-sex couples, but also for our children? Lawyer Nancy Polikoff dissects the ruling with her usual perspicacity.

She writes, “The Iowa court . . . methodically considered and rejected every conceivable relationship between denying marriage to same-sex couples and the best interests of children. In fact, it made mincemeat of those arguments.”

Not only did it reject the unscientific studies that claimed dual-gender parenting was best for children, but it asserted, “if the state was truly concerned with the optimal environment for children it would exclude other categories of people [from marriage], such as child abusers and sexual predators. Plus, it noted, the marriage ban does not prohibit same-sex couples from raising children.”

There’s more, but I’ll let you go read it on her blog. Good stuff.

LGBT Parenting Roundup

• Shirley Tan, the lesbian mom in California who was on the verge of being deported and separated from her partner and twin sons by immigration officials, has been given a two-week reprieve.
• Congressional sponsors reintroduced the Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act, which states that federally funded sex education programs in the nation’s public schools would be prohibited from discriminating against, and possibly omitting information about, gay people. The bill has been stalled in committee since 2001 for the obvious Republican reasons.
• Robert DeKoven, a professor at California Western School of Law, wrote a good article building on the recent Williams Institute study that found same-sex couples are “significantly” more likely to be poor than opposite-sex married couples. He says the disenfranchisement begins in childhood for many LGBT people, and explains how two new California bills to expand foster care services could help. Read the rest of this post »

Songs About Loose Teeth 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.) I’m also trying something new this month, with a widget after the jump that will let you preview all three songs without leaving Mombian.

Our friend Alice lost her very first tooth at school – hooray! Then there was a fire drill . . . and the tooth disappeared. This prompted a major discussion about Tooth Fairy Rules and Regulations, which are very confusing and seem to vary from region to region. Erin Lee remembers getting a tooth pulled out at the dentist’s, only to have the dentist – a professional, mind you! – LOSE the tooth. And that tooth would have scored extra Tooth Fairy Points as she was deprived of the incredible joy of wiggling it around and grossing out her friends. Anyway, these are the songs that we recommended to Alice to commemorate, celebrate – and commiserate – this important rite of passage. Read the rest of this post »

Scholarships for LGBT and Allied Students – Name Tweak Needed?

HRC has just compiled a very useful list of Scholarships for LGBT and Allied Students. Many of the scholarships, especially those from COLAGE, are open to children of LGBT parents.

Thing is, though, some children of LGBT parents prefer not to be called allies, as Abigail Garner has explained. “Ally,” she wrote, implies someone who is helping from outside a community. “I can’t really be an ally to a community of which I am already a part,” she added. Most of the commenters on the post agreed.

This is one of those tricky issues. How to be inclusive without being too wordy? “Scholarships for LGBT Students, Children of LGBT Parents, and Allies”? Something like that? Any suggestions?

In any case, it’s nice to see all of this scholarship information in one place. Thanks to HRC for compiling it.

Weekly Political Update

Was there any news this week? Things seemed kind of slow . . . .

Lots of good news on the marriage front, of course. First, some other national news:

• President Barack Obama asked former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy to be part of his Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Dungy has actively raised money for an anti-LGBT group that gay marriage went against “the Lord’s” values.
• John Berry was confirmed unanimously as director of the Office of Personnel Management. Berry is the first openly gay person to manage the agency that was once responsible for firing people because of their sexuality.
• Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced LGBT-inclusive hate crimes legislation, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, aka the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act.
• On Tuesday, more than 1,000 retired military officers issued a statement that called for the continuance of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, but Thursday, President Jimmy Carter’s former Secretary of the Army, Clifford Alexander, called it “bigotry” and an “inconsistent, foolish policy.” Read the rest of this post »

Goodbye, ER

I’m sitting here just after the final moments of the final ER and realizing that Helen and I have been together longer than the show has been on, but only by a year. ER brought us some of the only images of lesbian moms on mainstream television, starting with Dr. Kerry Weaver and ending with an anonymous couple whose lesbianism was obvious but not central to their storyline.

Tonight’s closing episode upheld the show’s LGBT-positive-but-not-pedantic stance, giving us a minor storyline about a gay man with AIDS who was, it turned out, dying of cancer. They showed us, rather than told us, he was gay, however, with a few loving shots of him and his partner.

Perhaps I’ve always been a fan because until it ended tonight, the show has followed almost the entire course of my relationship with Helen, and I remember watching it with her in our early days. I’ll miss it, and hope that for all its flaws and occasionally overblown personal dramas, some other show will pick up on its best characteristics of moral questioning and human sympathy.

Honda Commercial with Gay Dads

Honda must have noticed that Subaru’s marketing to the LGBT community was paying off. In this recent commercial, two men and a young boy get out of a car, ready to head to the beach. Sure, they could be a dad and an uncle, but I’d prefer to think they’re both dads, especially with the tag line, “Designed and priced for us all.” I like it even better that this isn’t a “gay commercial,” but instead shows an LGBT family (and a black one at that) as part of the regular diversity of society:

(Thanks, Sara.)

“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 64

This week, Helen and I are celebrating 16 years together! We also discuss the joys of classic Disney films (with or without a young Angela Lansbury), and how children’s movies have changed over the years, not necessarily for the better. For bonus points, we demonstrate the fun fold-out action of the Panorama book I blogged about earlier.

Watch Mombian: She Got Me 04-02-09 in Family  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
(Having trouble with the Dailymotion upload this week. Will keep working on it, and update here for those of you who can’t use the Veoh embed.)

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