LGBT Parenting Roundup

Let’s start with a funny:

When I first saw the Advocate headline, “Lesbian Named Part Owner of Cubs,” my first thought was, “And I thought it was hard enough for lesbians to adopt human babies.”

Politics and Law

• Lisa Neff’s piece at 365gay.com gives a touching example of how HUD’s proposed new anti-discrimination policies would impact real families.
• The Legislative Council in Tasmania, Australia, voted to recognize two mothers on a birth certificate and to make the recognition of co-mothers retrospective to 2003. (Thanks, PageOneQ!)
• The Scottish government is expected to recommend early next year that lesbians should be allowed free access to NHS fertility services. Some local NHS trusts already allow it, or will do so on a case-by-case basis, but there is no consistency across the country.
• The Montana Supreme Court once again upheld the rights of a non-bio mom in a custody case, that of Linda Filpula and Dustine Ankney (PDF). A trial court found that Filpula and the children “had child-parent relationships as a result of the joint decision of the two women,” and the state Supreme Court agreed, as Nancy Polikoff reports.

Schools and Youth

• Jonathan Zimmerman, who teaches history and education at New York University, asks, “What’s Wrong with Being Gay?” Specifically, he wants to know why the gay community’s response to the accusation that we want to “promote homosexuality” in schools has been “No we don’t” rather than “So What?” He makes the point in reference to Kevin Jennings, the openly gay assistant deputy secretary of education, who is under fire from the right; I made a similar point last year with regard to the Prop 8 campaign. Queerty dissects Zimmerman’s observation further, saying:
  

  The fearmongering campaign from zealots, and the innate reluctance from education moderates that keeps this from happening is the immediate connection between homosexuality and sex. Because that three-letter word is included in every discussion about gays and lesbians, it’s easy to scare parents and community leaders and academia as a whole from seriously engaging young people in an education about people who are not heterosexual. Algebra problems that make use of boyfriends and girlfriends (e.g., splitting the check on a date) don’t inherently involve a discussion about sex, because hetero partners are the norm. So why can’t we encourage educators to, every now and then, throw in two girlfriends in a proof? . . .

  First graders learn about classmates’ mommies and daddies, from what they do at work to how many siblings they provided their sons and daughters. It has nothing to do with putting penises in vaginas. Discussing the families of same-sex parents, then, needn’t have anything to do with genitalia and orifices, either.

  “If, at 4:00 p.m., Jane picks up Charlie from soccer practice, three miles from their house, and drives at 30 mph, and her spouse Sally picks up their other child, Susie, from karate lessons five miles away, and drives at 35 mph, which of them will arrive home first?” Read the rest of this post »

Preacher’s Sons Now Available on DVD

The other day, I mentioned the great new documentary Preacher’s Sons, which shows us five years in the lives of two gay dads and the five boys they adopt from California’s foster care system.

In the Life television will be airing the first 20 minutes of the 90-minute film online and on public television in November. If you want the full version for yourself, however, the DVD’s are now available at the film’s Web site. They’re only $20 each, three for $50, or ten for $100. Buy copies for all your friends, plus the schools, libraries, and social service agencies near you. (Filmmaker C Roebuck Reed is developing study guides for high school and college students, and for child service agencies to use in training foster and adoptive parents.)

Here’s my interview with Reed at Bay Windows. She calls the film “a love bomb for Middle America,” a gentle, non-confrontational way to change hearts and minds and ensure more children have the chance to be adopted.

Reed is hoping for investors to fund further distribution and showings. If you know of (or are) an angel investor, or have any clout with film festivals, please contact her at preacherssons@gmail.com.

(I have absolutely no financial interest in this; I just think it is a well done film with a very important message.)

Maine-taining Faith by the Jersey Shore

Maine is one of my favorite vacation spots. I’ve gone there ever since I was two and my parents took me camping along the coast. One of my earliest memories is of the moose that came wandering around our cabins one morning.

I wrote about Maine before the election, and noted that once again, the Right was making children the focus of their attacks. “Gay marriage will mean children will be taught about it in schools,” they shrieked.

Protect Maine Equality did a better job than California’s Prop 8 campaign at not falling into the trap of protesting, “No it won’t,” implying that there was still something wrong with such teaching. Instead, they focused on how marriage equality would mean equality for all families. Still, it was not enough.

Garden State Equality is already out of the gates with television ads showing not only that marriage equality means fairness for all families, but that marriage inequality hurts families and children, in very real and tragic ways. Will it be enough? Read the rest of this post »

New Garden State Equality TV Commercials

I’m sitting here reloading umpteen browser tabs as election results come in. At the moment, it looks like the Kalamazoon anti-discrimination ordinance has passed, openly gay Steve Kornell has won a seat on the St. Petersburg, Florida, City Council, Maine is still too close to call, and Washington polls have not yet closed.

In New Jersey, the anti-equality Chris Christie is ahead of incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine, who has promised to enact marriage equality. Prepared for any contingency, Garden State Equality is already on the airwaves with new television commercials.

Once again, parents and children take the lead in the battle for hearts and minds. This time, it is Marsha and Louise, who have raised four children, two with significant disabilities. I think GSE knocks it out of the park in terms of messaging: “It won’t affect your marriage, but it will mean everything to them.”

Check out Garden State Equality’s new Web site, too.

Bunches of Updates

This seems a good point to take a look at some of the further coverage of the Scholastic saga and their request that author Lauren Myracle change the lesbian moms of one character into a mom and a dad. The company will now carry the book (with moms) in its middle school book fairs, though not its elementary school ones.

• Change.org, who led the charge against Scholastic with an online petition and several talks with Scholastic executives, brought us the good news that Scholastic changed its initial decision not to carry the book in any of its book fairs.
• School Library Journal, which first broke the story, also gave us an update after the company reversed its decision.
• Brett Berk, aka “The Gay Uncle,” interviewed Myracle for Momlogic. She told Berk:
  

  The whole point was to have a cast of main characters that reflect the diversity of today’s elementary schools. The moms’ lesbianism is incidental. It’s not a plot point or the source of some big lesson in the book. Just like there’s a half Asian girl, an African-American girl who lives just with her dad, and a Muslim girl who wears a headscarf, there’s a girl with two moms.

  Note: The main characters are in elementary school. As Berk said, “Anyone with even an iota of expertise in how kids work (like, perhaps, one of the biggest youth publishing and distribution companies in the world) knows that the last thing a 6th to 8th grader wants to be associated with is anything having to do with 5th grade. Duh!” Read the rest of this post »

Election Day Watchlists

Like many of you, I am anxiously awaiting tomorrow’s election results. My thoughts are especially with my New England neighbors in Maine, but they stretch to Washington state and many places in between.

Chris Geidner at Law Dork and Nan Hunter at Hunter of Justice have each compiled great lists of referenda and races to watch, so I’ll refer you to them rather than recreating the wheel.

Best wishes to all of you in states impacted by these matters. On one level, that means all of us.

Stay tuned for post-election thoughts and analysis, or leave your own in the comments. For my on-the-fly thoughts as things transpire tomorrow, follow me on Twitter.

Preacher’s Sons: Two Dads, Five Sons, Four Cities

Preacher’s Sons is a wonderful new documentary that shows us five years in the lives of two gay dads and the five boys they adopt from California’s foster care system. I had the pleasure of interviewing filmmaker C Roebuck Reed recently, and while I can’t crosspost it here yet, you can read it over at Bay Windows.

In the Life television will be airing the first 20 minutes of the 90-minute film (plus an interview with Reed) in November. Check their site for local airtimes or to view it online.

The full DVD is for sale at www.preacherssons.com.

Reed says she made the film specifically for middle America, however, not just for the LGBT community. She is hoping for investors to fund further distribution and showings. If you know of (or are) an angel investor, please contact her at preacherssons@gmail.com.

On a related note, President Barack Obama, in his proclamation of November as National Adoption Month, said: “By continually opening up the doors to adoption, and supporting full equality in adoption laws for all American families [my emphasis], we allow more children to find the permanent homes they yearn for and deserve.”

Preacher’s Sons underscores why we have to hold him to this.

After the jump, a trailer for the In the Life presentation of the film:

Family and Food Songs 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.

Look for Erin Lee and Marci here on the first Monday of each month, or visit their homepage, www.gottaplay.org.

If you’re in or around Philadelphia this coming weekend, you can also catch them at the World Cafe Live on Saturday, November 7, at 11:30 a.m. See the venue Web site for details; here’s an excerpt of what it says about the duo:

The Indigo Girls meet The Smothers Brothers and sing for kids – that’s Erin Lee & Marci. . . . Disney’s Family Fun Magazine calls them “irresistible!” and Time Out New York named their live performance at Madison Square Park as the “Best Family Event” of the summer.

Their original songs reflect a kid’s eye view of the world that is sometimes poignant, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, but always right on the mark. Their first CD, Someone’s Gotta Wanna Play, was awarded Best Recording 2005 by the Children’s Music Web, the national music award chosen by children. Their follow-up, Snowdance, was debuted on Rosie O’Donnell’s R Family Cruise to Alaska, and went on to win two ASCAP Awards for excellence in writing and the Family Choice Award for 2006.

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 also have a widget after the jump that will let you preview most of the songs without leaving Mombian.

It’s Thanksgiving! To us, that means two things: Family and Food. So here’s a song about each: Read the rest of this post »