Over 130 blogs took part in Blogging for LGBT Families Day, sharing thoughts and experiences about what it means to be a family.
Contributors represented every part of the LGBT spectrum, straight allies, those with LGBT children, children with LGBT parents, non parents, expectant and prospective parents, biological and non-biological parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, those dealing with infertility, those with disabilities or chronic diseases, multiracial families, those writing from a religious perspective, and more. Most belong to more than one of these groups, which makes us part of a wonderful overlapping tapestry.
One frequent theme was that in many ways LGBT families are just like any others. Many wrote of the legal and financial burdens that make us unfairly different. Not all bloggers agreed on what to do about this, though, or how these concerns ranked in the overall scheme of world injustices. These are important discussions to have, and I hope we continue, through our blogs, listservs, and in person.
I wrote in my own entry that my main reason for creating this event was to share our stories with each other and with the world. Two contributors elaborated on this particularly well. Steve at Adamant Sun wrote:
It will be much harder for our political adversaries to use our families as political footballs and demonize us, if we put faces on LGBT families. Let people see us, see who we are and then they will see we are just like everybody else.
Families come in all shapes, sizes, colors and makeups. It’s just a great day when we all get together and celebrate that. Being part of a family, any part of it, is the best part of living, and we as a society should be rewarding and celebrating that in any way we can. So here’s a big “Hooray for families!” of all shapes and sizes, existing and soon to be.
Polly at Lesbiandad.net said:
Reading the entries . . . has been like—hmm—like sinking my chops into a juicy, foil-wrapped, plastic basket-bedded Mission District burrito after a long sojourn away from the California homeland. Would that be it? Or like dropping into a hot tub (or a Hot Tub; whichever) after a 12 hour-long moving day. Or like, well, like reading all about other queer parents’ experiences, here in the rosy dawn of my (de facto queer-o) parenthood, and at a moment of enormous national growing pains over the struggle for lgbt civil and human rights.
I will probably not be able to thank you all personally, so please accept this thanks for taking part. I’ll write several posts in the next few days highlighting entries and issues that caught my eye.
A footnote: President Bush has declared this Sunday, June 4, to be National Child’s Day, a time to “reaffirm our commitment to America’s children.”
We’re a tad early, but I think we’ve done our part.