Parents magazine has put an LGBTQ family on its cover for the first time—and here’s what Entertainment Editor Jessica Hartshorn has to say about it.
The cover story profiles celebrity fitness trainer Shaun T and his husband and business partner, Scott Blokker. It discusses their path to parenthood via surrogacy (after 12 attempts with five surrogates!), how they’re adjusting to life with twins, and how they balance parenting duties. Jessica Hartshorn, the entertainment editor at Parents, confirmed that this is Parents’ first cover with LGBTQ parents. She told me, “The cover is important from a representation standpoint; it’s the world-facing part of the magazine and so it was exciting to feature LGBTQ parents but not treat it is a ‘special issue.’ We took care to tell their story as fellow parents, and of course the story revolves around the issues unique to two men becoming parents but it’s not exactly about that, it’s about parenting.” That’s just as it should be.
The story was written, as happens, by Erin Bried, a publisher, writer, and lesbian mom herself, who with another hat on has launched Kazoo, a terrific new queer-inclusive magazine for girls that I’ve written about before.
We took care to tell their story as fellow parents, and of course the story revolves around the issues unique to two men becoming parents but it’s not exactly about that, it’s about parenting.
This isn’t the first time Parents has included LGBTQ parents within its pages and/or associated websites. Other queer parents they’ve featured include fitness guru Jillian Michaels and her then-fiancée, Heidi Rhoades; actors Neil Patrick Harris and husband David Burtka; actor and politician Cynthia Nixon and education organizer Christine Marinoni, who also have a transgender son; and social justice activist Trystan Reese and his husband Biff Chaplow, a social worker. Parents has also had articles on YouTube series Queer Kid Stuff, which explains LGBTQ and feminist concepts for young children; and on raising transgender children.
Joe.My.God reports that One Million Moms, a project of the American Family Association (which has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center), has started a campaign against the magazine because of the cover story. (They’ve also launched unsuccessful campaigns against Scholastic Books and others for LGBTQ content.) They warn parents of the “upcoming change of content in this magazine”—which is clearly wrong, since Parents has shown LGBTQ families for some time now. One Million Moms also cautions that the magazine “could be displayed in waiting rooms of dentist and doctor offices, where children could easily be subjected to the glorification of same-sex parents.” That doesn’t sound like a bad thing to me.
Hartshorn notes, too, “We’ve had LGBTQ authors and photographers and staff members. But the cover was new ground and, incidentally, our social team tells us it’s our best-received cover EVER! It got so much engagement, shares and positive comments. Shaun and Scott brought the boys to our offices last week and it was a lovefest all around.”
I say the lovefest wins.