A very happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate! Here’s a special roundup of pieces by, for, and about LGBTQ parents and Mother’s Day!
- First, here’s a little something I wrote for HuffPo Queer Voices on “Mother’s Day, Father’s Day And Making LGBTQ Families Visible.”
- “For some gay parents, Mother’s Day (or Father’s Day) is awkward,” writes Gail Cornwall at the Washington Post, but various queer parents nevertheless find different ways to handle the holidays.
- Dawn Ennis, a transgender woman who became a widow last year, writes, “Although my kids long ago accepted me as a woman and respect my pronouns, I don’t push the ‘M’ word on them. Their Mom is gone…. But being a woman as well as a dad, I’ve earned a title that, at first, seemed as farfetched to me as ‘widow.’ (Another one I never sought.) I do the job of a mother. Am I my kids’ mom? Nope. But I’m still no less a mom.” Go read the rest of her beautiful, heartfelt piece at NewNowNext.
- (For another piece on how gender and parenting titles may not always align by traditional standards, go read Biff Chapelle’s piece from last year, “Man and Mother Are Not Mutually Exclusive.”)
- Between the Lines, the Michigan LGBTQ paper, shares stories of lesbian and transgender moms for Mother’s Day.
- Rabbi Amy Bernstein writes at the Jewish Journal of her complicated feelings about the holiday, as an adoptee, a lesbian who had struggled with fertility issues before having her daughter, and someone who became estranged from her mother. She requests, “This Mother’s Day, I ask that we not assume that every woman we encounter is a mother, that not every one of us wants to talk about our mothers, and realize that many people find this day particularly painful.”
- RaiseAChild’s “Let Love Define Family” series at HuffPo’s Queer Voices profiles Anna and Monique Barvir-Boone of Orange County, California, who created their family through foster parenting and adoption.
- Gay dads, too, may celebrate the holiday, and Elizabeth Daley at Gays With Kids looks at “Mother’s Day the Gay Dad Way.”
- Still have old copies of Heather Has Two Mommies? They might be worth something as collectibles, the LA Times says. (And if you haven’t seen the updated 25th anniversary edition
, with revised text and new illustrations, you’re missing out. Even better than the original!)
- Share this one with your kids and co-parent (if applicable): “18 Perfect Mother’s Day Cards For When You Have Two Moms.”
- And here’s one for all the moms who have tried/are trying/may try to have a child through IVF: Cara Gormally’s comic “WE DOUBLED DOWN: On Two Moms Making a Baby with IVF” at Mutha Magazine.
Finally, please spread the word and plan to submit a post on Blogging for LGBTQ Families Day, June 1. I hold the event on the first weekday of June, not only because it’s the start of Pride Month, but because it sits roughly midway between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day—honoring both, but reminding us that not all parents exist at one of those poles. I’ll then compile and share the links, sending people back to your blogs/Facebook pages to read your posts. All are welcome to join in and celebrate LGBTQ families!
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