Here’s some great news to end the year: The Disney Channel’s social outreach campaign, “Make Your Mark,” currently includes a video about a 14-year-old boy who happens to have two moms. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) calls the video “the first of its kind for the Disney Channel, which has not included an openly gay character on its programming.”
A very merry Christmas to those of you celebrating the holiday today! My family and I are entering the homestretch of our multi-denominational holiday festivities, which extend roughly from Thanksgiving to New Year’s or until the holiday treats run out.
Gun control is only one part of what our country must do to reduce the chances of another school shooting like the one December 14 in Newtown, Connecticut—but it is a vital one. There are a number of petitions out now to let our elected officials know our thoughts on the matter. I’m highlighting a petition and a pledge from Moms Rising because they’re good folks who do a lot across the board to help those of us who have the honor of being called moms.
Dear Children:
It gets better. I know from experience. When I was but a wee foal, the other young reindeer bullied me mercilessly about my nose. It was not the coal black of theirs, but waxed and waned from a dull red to a glowing, vibrant crimson, depending on my mood.
Here are a few of the stories I haven’t covered elsewhere, including good news from Michigan and some cautious moves forward in Europe.
Sometimes, a piece of writing just makes me think. Chase Strangio’s “Making Room for More Impossible Decisions: Reflections on Being a Trans Parent” at HuffPo is one of them. Strangio gives much food for thought to parents across the LGBT spectrum and beyond, and calling for a greater understanding among parents of all types.
Congratulations to Roe, who won last week’s giveaway of Jennifer Gennari’s LGBT-inclusive middle-grade book My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer. (For details about the book, see my earlier post.) Even if you didn’t win, though, here’s one thing you can do to help authors of LGBT-inclusive kids’ books (and thus, indirectly, our kids).
An Iowa court yesterday ordered the state health department to issue an accurate death certificate for the stillborn son of Jenny and Jessica Buntemeyer.
Ashley Broadway has been with her spouse, an Army lieutenant colonel, for 15 years. They have a son (and will soon have an infant daughter) and have been together through numerous moves and deployments. When the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy was repealed, they became legally wed. Broadway has also assisted other military families through a variety of volunteer activities, including helping deployed soldiers find temporary homes for their pets. Yet when the family moved to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the Officers’ Spouse Club (OSC) told Broadway that she did not qualify to be a member.
Like many people, I am still going through periods of fear and sadness as I think of the school shooting last Friday in Newtown, Connecticut. There is no lack of commentary on the tragedy, but here are a few that I found rise above the rest.
