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New Dr. Spock Childcare Book Includes Gay and Lesbian Parents; Iffier on Transgender Issues
The new, 9th Edition of the venerable Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care by Dr. Benjamin Spock, first published in 1946, includes a section on gay and lesbian parents, the Washington Post informs us. I’ve taken a look, and while there is much to praise, there are also a few obvious gaps, particularly around gender [...]
Showtime’s “House of Lies” Off on the Right Foot with Gender Variant Child
A few days ago, I asked if Showtime’s new House of Lies series, premiering tonight at 10p.m. ET, would give a positive and unoffensive portrayal of the gender variant child of the lead character. Early indications are that they have done so. Diane Anderson-Minshall at the Advocate says, “For all the reasons other shows fail [...]
Will Showtime’s “House of Lies” Tell the Truth About Gender Variant Kids?
There’s a new LGBTQ character coming to television that I haven’t seen much coverage of yet—and because the character is a gender-variant child, I’ll take up the cause of spreading some awareness here at this parenting blog. Showtime’s new comedy series, House of Lies, which starts this Sunday, stars Don Cheadle as a “charming, fast [...]
Where Are the LGBT Biographies for Kids?
My third-grade son has been enjoying biographies, learning things even I didn’t know about Thomas Edison and Benjamin Franklin. So when I read that Frank Kameny, one of the founding fathers of the gay equality movement, was honored November 15 by a memorial service at the Cannon House Office Building near the U.S. Capitol, I [...]
Hanukkah Songs and Miracles
Like many of the Hebraic persuasion, I’ve always felt a little shortchanged when it comes to holiday songs. Radio stations play hours of Christmas carols without repeats, whereas we’re pretty much stuck with “I Had a Little Dreidel” and “Hanukkah, Oh, Hanukkah.” (I know, there are a handful of other traditional tunes, but really, just [...]
Top Lesbian and Gay Parenting Books of 2011
This year brought us several new books, fiction and non-fiction, featuring lesbian- and gay-headed familes. While we might hope for greater quantity (and greater diversity across the LGBT spectrum), the quality was at least very good. Here are some of the best.
“Pregnant Butch” Takes a Comic Look at Pregnancy and Gender
You’re probably saying, “What would make this Monday morning just perfect is a new comic about a pregnant butch lesbian.” What? You’re not? Well, you should be. Go check out A.K. Summers’ new comic/graphic tale, “Pregnant Butch” over at comic collective site Act-i-vate. It’s a funny, insightful, semi-autobiographical look at “a butch dyke enduring that [...]
Psych Character Has Lesbian Mom — But Will Network Show Her?
I admit it. I like USA Network’s comedy Psych. Maybe I like the 80′s references. Maybe I like remembering Dulé Hill in his halcyon days with the Bartlet administration. Maybe I’m just a sucker for female police officers like Maggie Lawson’s Jules O’Hara and Kirsten Nelson’s Police Chief Karen Vick. Sure, the humor is sometimes a [...]
“Invisible” Black Lesbian Families Made Visible
Invisible Families: Gay Identities, Relationships, and Motherhood among Black Women, by UCLA sociologist Mignon Moore, is arguably the most groundbreaking work on LGBT parenting published in recent years. Moore gives us one of the few in-depth looks at lesbians of color, showing how race and class influence their self-perceptions, relationships, and family creation. Her work [...]
New book Explores Lesbian and Gay Adoptive Families
(November is National Adoption Month. Here’s my review of a new book on adoption by lesbians and gay men. Originally published in my Mombian newspaper column.) There have been a number of studies over the past 25 years on lesbian and gay parents and their children, but few have looked specifically at lesbian and gay [...]
25 Years of Choosing Children
(Here’s another column I originally published last year, but which I think bears repeating as part of my parenting-related contribution to LGBT History Month. A few bits revised slightly to bring them up to date.) With Eric Stonestreet winning an Emmy last year for his portrayal of a gay dad in ABC’s Modern Family, and the [...]
The Kids Are All Right Headed for HBO Series
The Kids Are All Right, the 2010 movie about two lesbian moms and their teenage kids, is headed to HBO to become a one-hour drama series, SheWired informs us. Deadline adds that “it will continue the adventures of the five main characters.” No word on who will star in any of the leading roles, including [...]
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.
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 [...]
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 [...]
LGBT Characters in Young Adult Literature: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Authors Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith wrote in a post at Publishers Weekly this week that a literary agent told them to make a gay character in their young adult novel straight if they wanted the agent to represent them. It’s unfortunately not an isolated occurence. If you’re wondering why, author Patricia Nell Warren [...]
Jane Lynch On Motherhood
Glee actor Jane Lynch spoke with the Advocate about her new memoir, Happy Accidents, her early life and career, coming out, and becoming a sudden mother after meeting and marrying psychologist Lara Embry, who has two children from a previous relationship. “Motherhood has changed me,” she says. You and all the rest of us, darling. But there’s [...]
10 Books Every LGBT Parent Should Read
Books about LGBT parenting are few and far between, but here are ten that I recommend for all LGBT parents and prospective parents. I chose works that each showcase a variety of voices, rather than single-person memoirs, so each one would resonate as widely as possible. I also chose books that focus on the emotional side of parenting rather than medical and legal how-to works, since the latter tend to be specific to particular segments of the LGBT community.
I hope these selections, taken together, will help us better understand our collective, yet diverse, experience of being LGBT parents.
Create a Video for Banned Books Week
I often write about banned books here, and love the annual Banned Books Week in September. This year, the American Library Association is encouraging anyone celebrating the freedom to read to take part in a Virtual Read-Out on YouTube. School Library Journal has the details: The criteria are simple: create a video that’s less than two minutes [...]
Casting Call for LGBTQ Families
I’m passing along this casting call with the caveat that I have no personal experience with the project or company. If you’re interested, please contact them at the e-mail address below. (And if you’re selected, please let us know so we can all watch when it airs.) Even if you’re not interested, but have thoughts [...]
Harry Potter and the Definition of Family
From USA Today’s review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2: On the surface, Harry Potter was a tale of magic. But it also was a story about love, for friends, teachers and family—biological or otherwise—and the ability of love to flourish in the most difficult circumstances.
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 [...]
Jewish LGBT organization Keshet has announced the winner of its first Jewish Children’s Book Writing Contest (mentioned here in February): The Purim Superhero, by Elisabeth Kushner, a public librarian in Vancouver, Canada—and a lesbian mom herself. Kushner told Keshet: When I heard about the Keshet contest, it seemed like a perfect fit: in the Purim story, [...]
“Over the Rainbow” Casts an Academic Eye on Queer Children’s and Young Adult Books
Over the Rainbow: Queer Children’s and Young Adult Literature (University of Michigan: 2011) is the first collection of essays devoted to LGBTQ children’s and young adult literature. Edited by Michelle Ann Abate, associate professor of English at Hollins University, and Kenneth Kidd, associate professor of English at the University of Florida, the collection gathers 17 [...]
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