First Openly LGBT Parent in Congress

Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) and his partner Marlon Reis welcomed their son Caspian Julius into the world today, making Polis the first openly LGBT parent in Congress. Congratulations to the family.

Thanks to Family Equality for the heads up. (Click their link for a photo.)

New Resource for Teaching LGBT History in Schools

There’s a great new resource for teaching LGBT history in middle and high schools—and it might even teach us parents something. The Anti-Defamation League, Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), and StoryCorps have just released Unheard Voices, “an oral history and curriculum project that will help educators to integrate LGBT history, people and issues into their instructional programs.”

The groups say the project was created in response to the lack of representation of LGBT people in school curricula as well as “disproportionate incidents of bullying and violence against LGBT youth.”

The project contains audio interviews (and transcripts) of nine people who “helped shape LGBT history,” along with discussion questions, suggested activities, and historical background for each interview. There are also lesson plans on broad topics such as invisibility, name-calling, the exclusion of LGBT people from societal institutions, the right to marry, and understanding gender identity.

Interviewees include Phyllis Lyon, one of the founders of the pioneering Daughters of Bilitis lesbian rights group and of the Lesbian Mother’s Union; and Terry Boggis, one of the founding members of Center Kids, Center Families, a program of the New York City LGBT Center. GLSEN says they will add more stories and voices in the coming months.

Worth a listen/read for your own edification even if you don’t have kids in the target age range. (They’re mp3′s, so—if you’re like me—you can download them to the device of your choice and listen while you’re folding laundry, washing dishes, or raking the yard.)

How Many Same-Sex Parents Are There?

How many same-sex couples in the U.S. are raising children? According to the Williams Institute of UCLA, a new analysis of Census 2010 data shows that “nearly 132,000 (20%) of the nearly 650,000 same-sex couples in the U.S. identified as spouses. Data further show that 31% of couples who identified as spouses and 14% of unmarried partners are raising children.”

That means over 110,000 same-sex couples are raising kids.

Be careful, though: remember there are also single lesbian and gay parents, as well as (one assumes) couples who did not wish to identify themselves as such on the Census. Not to mention transgender and bisexual parents, who are invisible here, although some may have same-sex partners and thus (unbeknownst to us) be part of the above counts.

Still, this means that at a minimum, there are several hundred thousand of us lesbian and gay parents. We may not take over the world, but it’s increasingly likely we’ll pop up at a PTA meeting.

Book Recommendation: The Secret Science Alliance

My eight-year-old son and I stumbled upon a book the other day that he’s been unable to put down: The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook, by Eleanor Davis. If you roll your eyes at the school-despising, slacker mentality of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (however funny they may be), or if your kids love graphic novels, kid heroes, and/or science, you (and they) will love this.

The book begins as the story of one boy, Julian, who is bullied at school for being a “nerd.” His family moves to a new town, though, which promises a new start. Julian nevertheless finds he can’t hide who he really is, even if it means living in the shadow of “cool” kids like athletic jock Ben or tough-girl Greta. Davis takes the story in an unexpected but welcome direction, however (spoiler alert!), when she reveals Ben and Greta to be just as into science and inventing as Julian. Together, they form “The Secret Science Alliance” and end up saving the town from an evil adult inventor.  Read the rest of this post »

LGBT Parenting Roundup

A few items of interest to start your week:

• Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), the first Republican member of Congress to cosponsor the Respect for Marriage Act, has had her viewpoint on LGBT equality shaped by her experience as the mother of a transgender child (now grown), reports the Miami Herald.
• Can a same-sex couple who had a civil union in Illinois become foster parents? Lambda Legal answers.
• Katherine Bindley of HuffPo interviews  Yale sociology professor Rene Almeling about her new book Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm. It’s not LGBT-specific, but may be of interest to some of you.
• Comedian and lesbian mom Wanda Sykes has had a double mastectomy after a diagnosis of breast cancer.

Lesbian Moms Have Star Trek-Themed Wedding

Because here at Mombian, I’m dedicated to bringing you all the really important news about lesbian moms:

This is what happens when you let same-sex couples get hitched—they do so with their own style. Anita Bayliss and Margaret Wood had a Star Trek-themed civil partnership ceremony in Swansea, South Wales, to commemorate their meeting in a Star Trek forum. Not only did the women wear Starfleet dress uniforms, but they required their guests to wear Star Trek costumes as well. Bayliss’ two sons (of unspecified age) wore Captain Kirk outfits. (Let’s face it, if one was Kirk and one was Picard, there would have been fistfights over who was better.)

No word on where they’re beaming to for their honeymoon (or on whether J. J. Abrams will include any actual gay characters in the next Star Trek film, although After Elton seems hopeful).

(Thanks to the Daily Mail, via The Mary Sue. They have photos, too, which I have not used here because of copyright.)

Weekly Political Roundup

• The military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is no more—but the Department of Justice argued in court this week that servicemembers who had been dismissed under the policy should receive only half of normal severance pay, as per the regulations that existed at the time of their dismissal.
• The audience at the Republican presidential debate Thursday night booed when an active-duty soldier serving in Iraq asked if the candidates would reinstate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum was asked to answer, and replied that he would.
• Gautam Raghavan, the deputy White House liaison at the Department of Defense, will become the LGBT liaison in the White House Office of Public Engagement (OPE), taking over from Brian Bond, reports Chris Geidner at Metro Weekly.
• President Barack Obama will reprise his role as keynote speaker at HRC’s Annual National Dinner on October 1, Washington, D.C. He also spoke at the dinner in 2009.
• A Superior Court judge in Alaska ruled that same-sex couples in the state are entitled to the same senior citizen and disabled veteran property tax exemptions as opposite-sex married couples.

Around the world:

• Official statistics from the U.K. show that after five years, more than twice the number of opposite-sex marriages ended in divorce than did same-sex civil partnerships.

Maurice Sendak Talks About New Book, Parenthood, Coming Out, Growing Old

It’s Banned Books Week, the the American Library Association’s (ALA) annual celebration of the freedom to read. I can think of no better way to celebrate than to point out a new interview by NPR’s Terry Gross of children’s literature icon Maurice Sendak, about his new book, Bumble-Ardy. Sendak’s book In the Night Kitchen made the ALA’s list of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books in 2004.

Sendak also talks about his thoughts on parenthood, coming out (which he did at the age of 80), and the “fragility of life.” His partner Eugene was ill and dying while Sendak wrote Bumble-Ardy.  Sendak wrote the book, he said, in order to help himself live after Eugene’s death.

It’s a poignant interview (have tissues handy), but well worth the 20 minutes.

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