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“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 23

Helen and I did not go to the Dinah Shore weekend this year, but we recreate the event (minus the lesbian pool parties) with a homemade mini-golf tournament in our living room. Yes, it’s harder to take off for events like the Dinah when you have kids, but there’s no excuse not to travel with [...]

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Discrimination Doesn’t Fly with Tammy Baldwin

When Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin went with a congressional delegation to Europe, she brought along her spouse, as did other members of Congress. Or at least she wanted to. The Pentagon at first said her spouse, Lauren Azar, who had exchanged vows with Baldwin in 1998, could not take the flight. Speaker of the [...]

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“Gay Positioning System” Navigates Roads and Rights

Kansas-based Garmin, makers of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, today announced the availability of its “Gay Positioning System.” The new handheld units not only tell users how to find their way on the road, but also point out the status of their relationships as they cross city and state lines. “A couple could be married [...]

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Seeking Good Lesbian Travel Writing

Passing along this notice courtesy of Robin Reagler at The Other Mother: Women’s Wonderlands: Good Lesbian Travel Writing Gillian Kendall is currently soliciting submissions for a new anthology from University of Wisconsin Press, which will be a sister edition to Wonderlands: Good Gay Travel Writing, edited by Raphael Kadushin. Wonderlands has had terrific success, selling [...]

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Where We Are and Where We’re Going

A new study from the Williams Institute at UCLA (PDF link) has shown that the number of same-sex couples in the U.S. reporting themselves as “unmarried partners” quintupled between 1990 and 2006. The biggest increases were in socially conservative Southern and Mountain states, and states barring legal acceptance of same-sex couples. This seems odd—or highly [...]

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Eight Family-Friendly Haulers, Part II

Yesterday, Joe Tralongo of Gaywheels.com offered the first half of a guest post on family-friendly and gay-friendly haulin’ vehicles. Not everyone wants the same thing in a car, as was clear from comments on the post, but I hope these reviews will give you some sense of what’s on offer if you are in search [...]

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Eight Family-Friendly Haulers, Part I

Thanks to Gaywheels.com, “the Gay-Friendly Automotive Resource,” for today’s special guest post, first of a two-part series. Gaywheels’ Joe Tralongo has put together for Mombian a list of family-friendly—and gay-friendly—vehicles worth checking out if you’re in the market for a new ride for yourself and your clan. If, however, you’re having a midlife crisis and [...]

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R Family Cruise: It’s Not About the Destination

(Originally published in Bay Windows, Family Week Supplement, July 26, 2007.) R Family Vacations, profiled in the HBO documentary All Aboard: Rosie’s Family Cruise, caught some flak (but also some praise) earlier this year when they removed Bermuda from their July cruise. A group of protesters had threatened to meet the ship, and R Family [...]

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New Mexico Same-Sex Couples Can Marry in Massachusetts

Same-sex couples residing in New Mexico may now legally marry in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Registry of Vital Records and Statistics last Thursday issued “a corrective notice to all Massachusetts city and town clerks authorizing them to allow same-sex couples from New Mexico to apply for marriage licenses,” according to Gay [...]

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R Family Cruise: Day Six

Fairy-tale theme night today brought out all the princesses on board. Oh, and the little girls in pink dresses, too. The nice thing, however, is there was no sense of obligation to take part. Some parents brought old Halloween costumes for their kids (or themselves); others made do with appropriate pajamas, and others (like us) [...]

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R Family Cruise: Day Five

A short post tonight, because even bloggers need a vacation day now and then. Today we spent on the Norwegian Cruise Lines private island, a small volcanic burp in the Bahamas named “Great Stirrup Cay.” It has an idyllic beach, with warm aqua waters, enough shade for those of a fair-skinned persuasion, and enough sand [...]

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R Family Cruise: Day Four

Parental observation of the day: You can bring a four-year-old to new and exotic locales, but chances are he (or she) will be more enraptured by the fire truck going down the street than by any historic or natural attractions. Key West was fun, if blisteringly hot. We took a glass-bottomed boat tour to see [...]

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R Family Cruise: Day Three

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R Family Cruise: Day Two

The dance music starts early here on the Norwegian Dawn, piped onto the outside decks by 7:00 a.m. I know this because some crazy notion got me up then to go for a run. The beat was motivating—but then I went down to the fitness center where all the gay men working out made even [...]

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R Family Cruise: Day One

I was going to post this last night, but the ship’s Internet filtering software classified my site as “p___ography” (not spelling it so I don’t compound the problem). Not R Family’s fault, by any means, nor even the ship’s—they probably bought off-the-shelf filtering software. The problem is a societal one, and the fact that no [...]

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Bon Voyage!

I’m off with my family for a week of LGBT-family adventure on the R Family cruise. I’ll be live blogging from the ship, however, so do stop back to see if I have any profound thoughts about LGBT families en masse or exactly how many pounds of sand can get into a four-year-old’s swim trunks. [...]

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R Family Cruise: T Minus Two Days

Posting is light this week because I know many folks are on vacation, and because I’m in the throes of preparing for my own. This Saturday, my partner and I and our four-year-old son will be setting sail on the R Family Summer Adventure cruise. We’ll be the special guests of the Family Pride Coalition, [...]

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MizPee Helps You Find the Nearest Public Toilet

Taking a break from all the political posts of late to pass on this news of potential interest to parents and pregnant women, among others: MizPee lets you use your mobile phone to find the nearest, cleanest, public toilet. Text your city and state to their phone number, or point your mobile browser at www.mizpee.com. [...]

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You Say “Vegas of Gay Marriage” Like It’s a Bad Thing

After winning a vote to secure marriage rights for same-sex couples residing in Massachusetts, LGBT activists are moving on to the next target: rescinding a 1913 law that has been used to prevent out-of-state same-sex couples from having their nuptials here. (The law was originally used to prevent out-of-state interracial couples from marrying in the [...]

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Southwest Airlines Launches Gay and Lesbian Travel Site

Southwest Airlines has just launched a travel site dedicated “to the gay and lesbian community,” following the example of American Airlines and other travel firms. Let’s hope Southwest updates their terminology to include the bi and trans communities as well. Their corporate diversity policy includes gender identity as well as sexual orientation, so I don’t [...]

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Riding to Boston

It’s just my luck that we had a sleet storm here in the Hudson Valley yesterday, when the movers packed all our stuff onto a truck. Yes, the move to the Boston area that I mentioned back in October has finally arrived, despite the vagaries of the housing market and New York real-estate laws, which [...]

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92nd Street Y LGBT Family Camp Day

If you’re in the New York area and looking for a weekend activity with your kids later this month, you might consider the free 92nd Street Y LGBT Family Camp Day on Sunday, March 25 from 12 to 3 p.m. You can try a variety of activities or just picnic and mingle. The Y is [...]

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Valuing Our Families Conference

Passing along some information about the upcoming Valuing Our Families 2007 Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Valuing Our Families 2007 Conference Award Celebration and Town Hall Meeting Saturday and Sunday, March 24-25, 2007 Saturday events at Sunshine Cathedral, Fort Lauderdale, FL Sunday events at Easterlin Park and First Congregational Church, Fort Lauderdale Conference for Families, [...]

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Family Pride Organizing 2007 White House Egg Roll Contingent

The Family Pride Coalition is once again organizing a contingent of LGBTQ families to participate in the White House Egg Roll. They explain: With your help, on April 9th, hundreds of LGBTQ-parented families will fill the White House Lawn, rolling easter eggs side by side with our fellow citizens. At Family Pride, we believe that [...]

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Parentography Launches Social Site for “Families on the Go”

Yet another social networking site for parents, Parentography, launched today. Like babysitting/nanny network CareSquare, which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, Parentography aims at a practical niche of the parenting spectrum—this time, family travel. Users can submit two types of content: “Reviews” of specific destinations and “Excursions,” which can be less specific ideas [...]

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