March 2011

TD Bank Responds About New Survey on Parents and Financial Literacy

If there’s one thing I like as a consumer and erstwhile marketing professional, it’s a responsive company. I posted yesterday about a survey sponsored by TD Bank that explored how parents teach their kids financial literacy, but clearly focused only on opposite-sex parents. This morning, I received the following e-mail from Jimmy Hernandez, a media relations officer at TD Bank. I repost it here with his permission:

LGBT-Friendly Grants to Help with Adoption Expenses: Deadline Approaching

Need help with adoption expenses? An LGBT-inclusive nonprofit, Helpusadopt.org, is offering grants between $500 and $15,000 for just that purpose. The spring deadline for their semi-annual grants is April 15, so you’ll have to get moving if you want to apply. I have no affiliation or experience with the organization, so you’re on your own from here.

New Survey on Parents and Financial Literacy: Where Are the Same-Sex Parents?

April is Financial Literacy Month, and I’ve been receiving a number of related press releases, some silly and some less so. While I didn’t think many of you would really be interested in a talking piggy bank, I did think you might have some thoughts on a new survey from TD Bank. It’s titled, “TD Bank Financial Literacy Poll Reveals the Role of Parents in a Fiscally Fit Family”—although it really should be titled, “TD Bank Financial Literacy Poll Reveals the Role of Parents in a Fiscally Fit Heterosexual Family.”

LGBT Parenting Roundup

Personal Profiles South Coast Today (Massachusetts) profiles several gay dads and their struggle for acceptance. Pediatrician Maja Castillo writes for Gay City News about what happens when a child prefers one parent over the other, especially in cases of a biological and non-biological mother. Two lesbian moms in Birmingham, England have launched the U.K.’s first

Nurse Jackie: The Return of the Lesbian Moms

So who else is watching the season premiere of Nurse Jackie on Showtime tonight? As fans of the show will know, it’s full of all kinds of The Gay—plus Edie Falco, whose character Jackie isn’t gay, though her hair is. Personally, I’m most excited about the fact that Dr. Coop’s (Peter Facinelli’s) lesbian moms will

Should Preschools Direct Children’s Learning?

I’m hard pressed to find a preschool these days that doesn’t call itself a “childhood learning center” or the like. But in a recent article in Slate, “Why Preschool Shouldn’t Be Like School,” Alison Gopnik discusses two studies that have found “While learning from a teacher may help children get to a specific answer more

Weekly Political Roundup

The U.S. and 85 other countries backed a United Nations declaration calling for an end to violence and human rights abuses on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also issued a statement in support of ending such persecution and discrimination. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth

Legal and Financial Hurdles for Same-Sex Parents

The New York Times has an article today on “The Extra Hoops Gay Parents Must Jump Through” in terms of legal and financial protections. Three experts, a lawyer, a financial planner and an accountant (which sounds like the start of a joke, but it’s not), offer their advice to a lesbian couple in Michigan with two children.

Prop 8 Still Stays; So Does Hope

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today denied a request from plaintiffs in California’s Proposition 8 case to lift a stay on a lower court ruling and allow same-sex couples to marry while the case is being heard. That means no wedding bells in the Golden State for the foreseeable future. I

Science in Your Inbox

My son is always complaining that his school doesn’t do enough science. It’s the result, I believe, of the much maligned No Child Left Behind educational policy and its focus on core math and reading skills to the neglect of science, social studies, history, and other subjects. Not that the core skills aren’t important—but I firmly

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