LGBT Parenting Roundup
Personal Stories
- The Children’s Hospital Boston blog shares the story of Sylvia (not her real name), who was born Ryan, diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder at age six and transitioned to live as a girl at the start of fifth grade. The blog has also posted an essay by Sylvia’s father—both must-read pieces, as is the piece that led me to them, Joanne Herman’s “A Wedding Just for the Kids” at HuffPo.
- On a related note, if you missed Slate’s early-August piece on a camp for transgender and gender-variant kids, go read.
- On a more sobering note, and one that makes us appreciate stories like the above, Kim Pearson, executive director of TransYouth Family Allies (TYFA), relates the story of a school district in Kansas that is refusing to recognize a 10-year-old transgender girl’s gender identity, even though at least one school in the district was willing to make a safe, productive environment for her. TYFA (in conjunction, I assume, with the girl’s two moms) is now trying to raise money to bring a lawsuit against the district.
- Central Pennsylvania’s Patriot News profiles lesbian moms Joy Verner and Sue Waldner, mothers of four. The article mentions the movie The Kids Are All Right, and cites the latest results from the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS; about which more here), but feels it has to counter it with a quote from the spokesperson of the anti-LGBT American Family Association of Pennsylvania. It also feels like it tries a bit too hard at times, with pedantic sentences like, “The two nurture their children, exposing them to social and cultural interests, and teaching them the importance of education and respect for others.” Still, it’s an overall positive article, and a sign that movies like Kids and studies like the NLLFS are indeed raising awareness of lesbian families.
Starting a Family
- A small study in the U.K. has found that the costs of getting pregnant are a barrier to many lesbians trying to conceive, despite new laws that make it easier for them to use fertility clinics. Read the rest of this post »

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Mombian YouTube Channel: Positive videos of LGBT families








