“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 101

Helen and I bring you the Nature Edition of our vlog this week, with a look at what we’ve been doing outdoors with our son as the weather turns slightly warmer. This leads us to a discussion of science, education policy, and what happens when life imitates video games.

(If the embedded video above doesn’t work for you, try it at Dailymotion.)

Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.

“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 100

Helen and I take an Olympian approach to our 100th vlog. After watching the Olympics non-stop for two weeks, we bring you the “Top Ten Reasons Parenting Is Like the Olympics” (and not just because it’s like sliding down an icy track at 90 miles per hour).

(If the embedded video above doesn’t work for you, try it at Dailymotion.)

Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.

NCAA Pulls Focus on Family Ads

Under pressure from LGBT advocates, including Pat Griffin, Change.org, and (I imagine) many of you, the NCAA has pulled the Focus on the Family (FOF) ads from its Web site.

As I wrote yesterday, the ads were running at NCAA.com, a site managed in partnership with CBSsports.com. CBS came under fire for running FOF ads during the Super Bowl in January.

There’s still no word about future ads, or about the rumor that CBS will run FOF ads during the upcoming NCAA basketball championships, so stay tuned. Reproductive health blog RH Reality Check also covered the story. (FOF is as anti-choice as they are anti-LGBT.) The story made the virtual pages of Inside Higher Ed, though (h/t, Andy), so let’s hope that not only the LGBT community, but also the community of all fair-minded people in higher education can keep the pressure on.

Tell the NCAA to Stop Running Ads for Focus on the Family

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is running banner ads for ultra-conservative group Focus on the Family. You can see them at NCAA.com. (If you don’t, just reload the page; the ads are in rotation with some others.)

This is an affront to all LGBT, feminist, and allied NCAA athletes and former athletes. I was an NCAA athlete myself, and I’m personally pissed.

I first learned of the incident from Pat Griffin’s LGBT Sport Blog. Griffin is the former director of It Takes A Team, an education and advocacy project addressing LGBT issues in sport. She observes:

The NCAA constitutional principles include an explicit prohibition on discrimination based on sexual orientation. Lesbian and gay student-athletes, coaches, and administrators are a significant part of the NCAA’s membership. Women are a significant part of the NCAA on all levels. Many of the individual institutions [i.e.,  colleges and universities] that belong to the NCAA have policies prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. Yet the NCAA apparently thinks it is just fine to support an anti-gay agenda.

Griffin also says (which I cannot confirm, but have no reason to doubt) that CBS plans to air FOF ads throughout the men’s NCAA basketball tournament in March “with the complete complicity, consent and support of the NCAA.” CBS, as you may know, came under fire for running an FOF ad during the Super Bowl. Read the rest of this post »

“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 99

Helen and I talk about watching the Olympics with our son, teaching him to skate, and keeping kids active during the winter in a snowy climate.

(If the embedded video above doesn’t work for you, try it at Dailymotion.)

Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.

Johnny Weir, His Mom, and Gay Guinea Pigs

What does Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir have to do with gay guinea pigs? The talented Sarah Brannen, author and illustrator of Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, the much-challenged children’s book about two male guinea pigs who marry, made a name for herself with photographs and watercolors of ice skaters long before she turned to furry rodents.

She’s captured the images of Olympic skaters like Weir, Rachael Flatt, Sasha Cohen, and many others. Check them out in the Figure Skating section of her Web site. (Please keep in mind that they are subject to copyright.)

Brannen is a regular contributor to Skating Magazine, and along with 2006 Junior World Champion pair skater Drew Meekins, writes and contributes photographs to a regular column on Ice Network. One of Brannen’s drawings is in the collection of the World Figure Skating Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

If any of you have children who skate, you might want to read Sarah and Drew’s column from a couple of years back, in which they ask Johnny Weir’s mom Patti for her thoughts on being Johnny’s mom and her advice for other skating parents.

I took my own son skating for the first time yesterday, and he had a blast. I have no idea if his interest will last, but I think Patti Weir’s tips could be applied to many other sports and endeavors. It sounds like she has a healthy perspective on what really matters: “Be the positive reinforcement to your child.”

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A Lesbian Olympic Soundtrack

Thanks to the industrious folks at After Ellen, we now know there are four (count ‘em, four!) out lesbian athletes in this year’s Olympics, and no gay male ones.

That didn’t stop Olympic organizers from having k.d. lang perform at the opening ceremonies, or prevent NBC from using Melissa Etheridge’s “This Moment” for the closing montage of their Sunday night coverage.

This got me thinking (though perhaps my brain was addled from watching the speedskaters earlier—mmm, speedskaters): Many of Melissa’s songs seem to match up well with Winter Olympic sports, to wit:

• “Bring Me Some Water”: Cross-country skiing.
• “Like the Way I Do”: Pairs skating.
• “You Can Sleep While I Drive”: Bobsled (drivers only).
• “Brave and Crazy”: This could fit a lot. Ski jumping and halfpipe snowboarding come to mind.
• “An Unexpected Rain”: Downhill skiing (at least so far this week).
• “Nowhere to Go”: Short-track speedskating.
• “Touch and Go”: Short-track speedskating relay.
• “Precious Pain”: Pretty much any of them.
• And for the athletes who don’t medal, we have “Stronger than Me,” “I Could Have Been You,” and “No Souvenirs.”

Too much lesbian sporty geekiness? Naw. No such thing.

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In Memoriam: Brendan Burke

Last November, I posted about Brian Burke, the gruff president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who very publicly supported his gay son Brendan, a hockey player for Miami University. Today I just learned of the sad news that Brendan was killed in a weather-related two-car accident in Indiana Friday afternoon.

My deepest condolences to Brendan’s family, who loved him unconditionally.

“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 95

In our first vlog for the new year, Helen and I show off the new Wii Santa brought our son. (Clever Santa.) We discuss the communal nature of today’s video games, setting video game limits with kids, and violence in Legoland. Helen also talks about a wonderful and slightly gender-bending new children’s book about Emily Dickinson, My Uncle Emily.

I know we’re not the only ones out there who got new Wiis this season. (I’m looking at you, Deb, Liza, and Vikki.) Tell us if or how you’ve set Wii limits with your own kids—or yourselves for that matter. Or do you just stock up on Gatorade and play till you drop?

(If the embedded video above doesn’t work for you, try it at Dailymotion.)

Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.

Ed. note: I am a member of the Amazon Associates program, and get a small referral fee from all purchases made at Amazon.com via links on this site. You are under no obligation to purchase through them.

Lesbian Moms Rejected as Leaders of Son’s Cub Scout Troop

Cate and Elizabeth Wirth, a lesbian couple in Vermont, were told by a Vermont district director of the Boy Scouts that they could no longer volunteer for their son’s Cub Scout troop after it became known that they are a couple. According to the Rutland Herald, Richard Stockton, Scout executive for the Green Mountain Council, confirmed, “The national policy of the Boy Scouts of America is we don’t accept gays and lesbians as volunteers.”

This is awful, but given the Boy Scout’s previous history with gay matters, it is perhaps not surprising. (For the record, I also have a serious problem with the fact that the Boy Scouts don’t allow atheists or agnostics to be leaders, either.)

What is interesting, however, and what I hope will stir some discussion among those of you who are around over the holiday, is this comment from one of the mothers: Read the rest of this post »