Here are a few recent items of interest for children of LGBT parents, and one (mostly) for children of non-LGBT parents:
The 2002 film Our House: A Very Real Documentary About Kids of Gay & Lesbian Parentshas been re-released on DVD. I haven’t seen it myself, but Abigail Garner recommends it, and that’s good enough for me. The documentary won Best Documentary jury awards at both the Los Angeles and New York Lesbian & Gay Film Festivals.
- COLAGE has published a first-of-its-kind Kids of Trans Resource Guide (PDF), written by and for kids of trans parents.
- The Ottawa Citizen ran an article last week profiling several children and adult children of LGBT parents. It’s a nice balance to all of the stories (important as they are) showing the smiling lesbian couples talking about finding sperm donors. It even includes children whose parents came out when they were teens and tweens, and a child who was adopted. “As a child of a gay person, you’re on the front line of homophobia even though you’re heterosexual,” says one interviewee, who also speaks of the difficulty of finding a place in the LGBT movement.
Also from up north is an article in Canada.com about explaining same-sex parents to children. The article is aimed at children of non-LGBT parents, but much is applicable to parents of any type explaining families, love, and (later) sexuality to their children. Among other things, it quotes Dr. Justin Richardson, author of Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid They’d Ask)
We’re hesitant because as adults we think that to talk about gay families is to talk about gay sex. Therefore parents are squeamish. I can promise you that while an adult might think of a gay couple and think of them having sex, a second grader will not think that abstractly. They’re just thinking that they’re two people in love who happen to be same sex—who aren’t that different from Mom and Dad.
Richardson is, of course, also the co-author of the same-sex penguin classic And Tango Makes Three
