“An Entire Community’s Embrace” for LGBT Families at Family Week

Photo courtesy of the Family Equality Council

(Originally published as my Mombian newspaper column.)

Take several hundred LGBT families from around the country—moms, dads, children young and old, and assorted other relatives—add sun, sand, movies, and a bonfire, and you’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of what Family Week in Provincetown is all about.

The event, now the largest gathering of LGBT families in the country, had its origins in a grassroots group of gay dads looking to support one another and build their community.

Out of their organizing, in 1979, came the Family Equality Council (FEC), first known as the Gay Fathers Coalition (and later expanded to include all LGBT parents). Family Week “started out as some backyard gatherings” of the men in the group, said Brent Wright, director of programs for the FEC. In 1985, it became an “official” week-long series of events. “Over the years, it’s just continued to gain momentum,” Wright said.  Read the rest of this post »

Coming Soon: Conference for Gender Non-Conforming Children, Youth, and Their Families

Gender Spectrum, an organization that provides “education, training and support to help create a gender sensitive and inclusive environment for all children and teens,” is hosting their annual Gender Spectrum Family Conference at the end of the month. I’ve never been, myself, but I’ve heard good things about it. (Please leave a comment if you’ve attended, and let us know about your experience.) Details below:

The 2011 Gender Spectrum Family Conference in Berkeley, July 29-August 1, will bring together youth, families and professionals for a weekend of support, learning and celebration of transgender and gender creative young people. The weekend is a transformative experience for all involved.  We’ll have more than 30 workshops for adults, Kids Camp for ages 5-8, a brand new Tween Program for children ages 9-11, and our fabulous Teen Program.

REGISTER NOW for The 2011 Family Conference or The 2011 Professionals’ Workshop

For more info visit: www.genderspectrum.org, or contact us at info@genderspectrum.org, (510) 567-3977.

Harry Potter and the Anticipated Finale

Let’s face it: for many of us, there’s only one thing on our minds this week: the release of the final Harry Potter film. I’m not ashamed to say that I’m a huge fan—and not just because the series has a definite queer sensibility, what with its themes of social justice, author J.K. Rowling’s admission that Dumbledore was gay, a short-haired Quidditch coach, and the fact that Rowling owns a copy of Radclyffe Hall’s lesbian classic, The Well of Loneliness (seen just to the side of her head on the dust jacket of the U.K. adult edition). I also love the series for its rich world- and character-building, and for Rowling’s ability to take well-worn themes (vid., Tolkien; Star Wars; much of the Western canon of fairy tales) and turn them into something completely fresh. Now that’s transfiguration!

Here’s a look back at the series:

What’s your favorite Harry Potter character or moment?

Weekly Political Roundup

• A 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued an order that the Defense Department stop enforcing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT). The order lifts an injunction against an earlier ruling to halt DADT.
• The U.S. Department of Justice made the first legal filing in the country in which they have fully argued to a court that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional.
• The Department of Justice withdrew its challenge to an attempted joint bankruptcy petition filed by a married gay couple in California, and says it will no longer seek to dismiss such petitions by married same-sex couples.
• The U.S. House voted to withhold funds for DADT repeal training for military chaplains. It also voted to prohibit chaplains from performing marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples on military bases, even in states where it would be legal.

Around the world:

• The Council of Europe has issued a thorough report on the legal and social status of LGBT people in Europe. Nan Hunter has a good summary; the full report is here.
• A Jamaican lesbian has been granted asylum in the U.K.

New York Families Celebrate Marriage Equality

New York enacted marriage equality on June 24. Here’s a short video by the Family Equality Council showing the responses of some LGBT parents and their children.

If you are considering getting married in the Empire State, you might want to check out this list of Frequently Asked Questions from Lambda Legal.

Butches and Babies: Tumblr Love

There’s nothing I want to share with you more today than Butches & Babies, a delightful new Tumblr microblog site by Meaghan O’Malley. (Thanks to lesbian wonderland Autostraddle for the tip.) Meaghan brings together butch, “in all of its iterations,” and babies (“human”), saying that she’s “fascinated by the juxtaposition of a baby nestled in a butch’s arms.” Take a look at the photos she’s collected, and you will be, too.

Meaghan and Em, the butch to whom she is “almost-married,” don’t have any children of their own, but Meaghan says she loves to take photos of Em holding babies. She explains, “It’s not at all easy to march through the world shattering gender norms at every turn. So when a butch holds a small child, relatively unaffected by gender (in a cognitive/behavioral sense), it is a simultaneous exchange of healing and freedom.”

Meaghan is looking for submissions to the site; as she notes, please make sure you have permission of the parent(s) if the child is not your own.

LGBT Parenting Roundup

Opinion

• The New York Times asks “Who’s on the Family Tree?” and answers, “Now It’s Complicated,” in an article notable for including both same-sex couples and non-traditional opposite-sex couples.
• Joan Oliver Emmer, a straight ally in New Jersey, offers her opinion on “Why marriage equality is good for my kids…and yours.”
• Janice D’Arcy of the Washington Post writes about “Gay parenting as, well, parenting.”

Politics and Law

• California’s Protection of Parent-Child Relationships Act, AB 1349, which clarifies that courts can consider the relationship between a child and his or her biological and non-biological parents when they are asked to determine who the child’s legal parents are, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 14.
• Liechtenstein has a new law giving registered same-sex couples many of the same rights and protections as married opposite-sex couples—notable because it is one of the few instances anywhere of voters, not legislators or courts, extending these rights. The law still withholds equal adoption rights from same-sex couples, however.
• Nancy Polikoff reports on the child visitation case of former partners Julie Rowell and Julie Smith. They became parents while still a couple and raised the child together for five years. An Ohio trial court had granted Rowell, the nonbiological mother, temporary visitation, which Smith refused to allow. The trial judge held her in contempt of court, but an Ohio appeals court overturned that ruling, stating that the trial court, in Polikoff’s words, “lacked the authority (and therefore the subject matter jurisdiction) to issue a temporary visitation order to a non-parent unless there was pending an action for dissolution of a marriage or child support.”
• Outfront Colorado reports on the story of lesbian mom Wendy Alfredsen. Wendy and her former partner, Lena Alfredsen, had each adopted one of two biological sisters in 2004, before the state recognized second-parent adoptions. The women later broke up, and Lena fled the country in 2009 with their youngest daughter. Wendy has also written more about the case at her Facebook page.

Miscellaneous

• Despite legal hurdles, more and more same-sex couples are adopting children, according to U.S. Census data. (Via the New York Times.)
• If you’re a same-sex couple living in London, Lambeth Council wants you to consider becoming a foster parent.
• The University of California-Berkeley’s News Center has an article on Rafael Colonna, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology, who has been studying the various parental titles gay and lesbian parents choose.
• The Chicago Tribune profiles single lesbian mom Carrie Kaufman, who also blogs at The Gay Mom.

Weekly Political Roundup

• President Obama continued to avoid answering questions about his stance on marriage equality.
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to begin collecting health data on LGBT populations.
• Immigration officials canceled the deportation of a Venezuelan man living in New Jersey who is married to an American man.
• President Obama nominated Robert Lee Pitman, an out gay magistrate judge, as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas.
• EqualityMaine and Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders are beginning the process of initiating a ballot measure to regain marriage equality.
• Garden State Equality and Lambda Legal, filed a lawsuit on behalf of seven same-sex couples and their children seeking marriage equality in New Jersey.
• The Rhode Island legislature passed a civil union bill, which the governor has said he will sign—but LGBT advocates are urging him not to, because it contains “dangerous and discriminatory” religious exemptions.

Around the world:

• A Brazilian state judge approved the nation’s first marriage of a same-sex couple, ruling two men could convert their civil union into a full marriage.