Family Profiles
- Tigger, a lesbian mom, writes at Moms Rising about why “Without Unemployment Insurance, My Family Would Have To Choose Which Bills to Pay.”
- CBS Minnesota’s WCCO This Morning each week “[rewards] a hard-working, dedicated parent who loves what they do.” Last week, they chose lesbian moms Tara and Becky Lien—but the notable thing about their coverage is that it is totally normalized. They don’t treat them any differently than any other couple, and don’t even need to point out the obvious—that they are a lesbian couple. Nicely done.
- Author and poet Michelle Tea is writing at xojane about trying to get pregnant as “a single queer lady who hardly knows a single sperm-producing man.”
- The Leffew family has gotten in a holiday mood with their video “I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus.” (I did my own small lesbian mom riff on the classic tune (text, not video) five years ago.)
Law and Politics
- The New York Times’ Tara Siegel Bernard investigates incidents of the IRS denying lesbian moms the adoption tax credit.
- Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) has asked the U.S. Department of Education to reform policies “that discriminate against the children of same-sex couples and gay and transgendered students seeking federal financial assistance to attend college.”
News from Down Under
- An Australian bishop has told a Catholic primary school in his diocese that it was wrong to refuse kindergarten admission to a girl who has lesbian moms.
- On a geographically, but not causally, related note, Australian finance minister Penny Wong and her partner Sophie Allouache welcomed their first child, a baby girl.