Archives › Business
From Sea to Shining Sea
A very happy wedding day to Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, who will marry today at 5:01 p.m. Pacific, after waiting over 50 years. Two other plaintiffs in the marriage case, Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, who got the ball rolling for the lawsuit when they were denied a marriage license at the Beverly Hills [...]
TiVo Hits “Erase” on Hate Group?
Earlier this week, I wrote of the developing story surrounding TiVo and the company’s relationship with ultra-conservative group Focus on the Family (FOF). FOF had a relationship with TiVo to promote Tivo’s KidZone content-screening feature and offer a special deal to FOF members. The organization appeared to have partnered with the company on a Father’s [...]
LGBT Parenting Roundup: A Happy, Happy Post
Writing about the right always makes me grumpy. To cheer up myself and maybe some of you, here’s a roundup of some happy articles about LGBT families: “Mother’s Day Special: A Tale of Two Moms” in the Windy City Times is the first of a two-part series about a couple of lesbian moms in Chicago. [...]
We’re Here, We’re Queer, We File Every Year
H&R Block’s TaxCut Online software doesn’t support tax filings for civil union couples, as two Connecticut men have found out. The ACLU has sent a demand letter to the company asking it to change its system. The ACLU also states “Although the tax requirements for couples with civil unions in Connecticut are very similar to [...]
Wells Fargo Shareholders: Vote Against LGBT Discrimination
If you happen to own shares of Wells Fargo, make sure to open the proxy statement you should have received recently, and take the time to vote your proxy. Item 9, “Stockholder Proposal Regarding Neutral Sexual Orientation Employment Policy” (pages 105-107) is a vicious, anti-LGBT proposal asking the company to create an equal opportunity policy [...]
“America’s Favorite Mom” Wants LGBT Nominees
Last week, I urged readers to nominate their favorite LGBT moms for the title of “America’s Favorite Mom” in Teleflora’s Mother’s Day contest. I thought it would be a good opportunity for visibility. Two days after my post, I received an e-mail from a publicist at Edelman, Teleflora’s PR agency. She thanked me for helping [...]
Kenneth Cole Loves Lesbian Moms
A new Kenneth Cole ad campaign, “We All Walk In Different Shoes,” features a lesbian couple and their two-year-old daughter as one of several examples of “non-uniform thinkers.” (Thanks, Family Equality.) While I applaud the use of black clothing (hides mud, strawberry jam, and worse), I have to question the shoes. Both moms are wearing [...]
Book Review: Happy Baby, Healthy Mom
A publicist sent me a copy of the Happy Baby, Healthy Mom Pregnancy Journal by Robert A. Greene, M.D. and Laurie Tarkan. I was looking forward to reviewing it, and glad that a general pregnancy publication from a mainstream press (Clarkson Potter, part of Random House) was reaching out to lesbian moms. The combination book [...]
Taxing Our Patience
Tax-preparation software TurboTax has a number of Web pages devoted to helping people determine the tax implications of various life changes, such as changing jobs, getting married, or having children. To the right is the image they use under the title “Your Child.” They also use it in one of their television ads. Not exactly [...]
Parents.com Drops Lesbian Mom Blogger
Harlyn Aizley, author of Buying Dad and editor of Confessions of the Other Mother, both books that deserve a place on any lesbian mom’s bookshelf, will no longer be writing her Are You My Mothers? blog for Parents.com. She was fired by Parents.com’s parent company, Meredith Corporation, ostensibly because her blog did not generate enough [...]
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 [...]
Know Your Market: Why IKEA Rocks
As regular readers know, my family and I moved last month. My partner and I have in fact moved seven times in the fourteen years we’ve been together, and we’ve settled into a pattern: visit Home Depot a dozen times in the first month at our new home, and then set off on the first [...]
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 [...]
Corporate Political Donations, LGBT Friendliness, and Our Consumer Choices
Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay, has been helping former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney raise money for his presidential bid. (Queerty pointed me to the original New York Times article.) Romney, as many of you know, is actively opposed to same-sex marriage. Last October, he even spoke at a rally of the virulently homophobic Family Research [...]
Software for Stay-at-Home Parents
I had it good when I was employed outside the home. The latest word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation programs. Integrated e-mail and calendaring, with the ability to share events and track attendees. Anti-virus software I didn’t need to re-purchase every year. Once I started staying home with my son, however, the party stopped. There were [...]
LEGOs and Lesbians
LEGO Bricks were one of the favorite toys of my childhood. I can’t wait until my son is old enough for the gear-filled LEGO Technic sets. I therefore enjoyed reading Business Week’s recent article on The Making of a LEGO Brick (thanks, Slashdot), which details the precise production process (“only 18 out of 1 million [...]
Coffee Time
A publicist for Folgers Coffee contacted me a while ago and asked if I’d be interested in some free samples of their new Folgers Gourmet Selections coffee. All I’d have to do is blog about them. Since they were not paying me to do so, and wanted my honest opinion—good, bad, or ugly—I agreed. I [...]
The Advocate’s “Best Companies” List Includes Discrepancy with HRC Index
The corporate rankings just keep rolling in. After HRC last week and Working Mother yesterday, The Advocate today released its 2006 list of 10 companies it feels are good places for LGBT workers. This year’s 10 join 85 others (all unranked) that the magazine has picked in the past. It’s notable that three companies fell [...]
Working Mother Names Best Companies for Parents
Last week, I mentioned Working Mother magazine’s list of 100 Best Companies, in the context of HRC’s Corporate Equality Index. Today, Working Mother just put out its updated 2006 list. It’s useful to look through the list and see whether the company you want to work for or buy from is family friendly. It’s also [...]
Lesbians Do Laundry
Appliance maker Whirlpool is launching a promotion with dating site Perfectmatch.com, in which they invite singles to join them at special “Spin Cycle” singles parties in cities around the country. “Besides potentially meeting your perfect match,” they say, “you’ll get to check out some new, premier laundry products perfect for your lifestyle.” Not my lifestyle, [...]
FamilyRoutes: New Online Community for Families
FamilyRoutes is a new online community for families offering free, unlimited blogging and photo sharing as well as a host of other great features. Samantha Fein, one of the founders (and a mom herself), explains the company’s vision: “Each of us has many dimensions, not just parenthood or our work life. This service is about [...]
HRC Releases “State of the Workplace” Report
The Human Rights Campaign has released its “The State of the Workplace 2005-2006” report. There’s lots of good news. For the first time, a majority of Fortune 500 companies (albeit only 51% percent) offer domestic partner health insurance benefits. A more solid majority (86%) now include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policies. While only 16% [...]
AfterEllen.com Feature on Lesbians in Advertising
Since I’ve blogged about lesbians in advertising (or the lack thereof) a couple of times in the past few days, I wanted to point out a full-length article that appeared today on AfterEllen.com covering the same topic. Hop on over if you want to read a more detailed review of lesbian-themed ads over the years—good, [...]
PFLAG Rings Bell at New York Stock Exchange
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) will ring the closing bell on the New York Stock Exchange this Friday, the first time an LGBT family group has done so. The event symbolizes “ring[ing] the closing bell on homophobia.” It also highlights the increasing buying power of LGBT Americans, estimated at $641 billion [...]
Hilton Advertises to G Part of LGBT Market
Hilton Hotels last week announced a new ad campaign targeting “the GLBT community.” The ads, to be run in major GLBT publications, have the tag line, “Come as you are . . . fabulous.” Hmm. Last I checked, “fabulous” was a word most often used to describe the gay male community. (Not that lesbians, bisexual, [...]
2 of 2
