April 2010

The Most Powerful Lesbian Moms in America

Out magazine just published their fourth annual list of “The Power 50: The Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America,” and David Mixner has posted his list of the Twenty Most Powerful Lesbians in American Politics, which means it’s time for my fourth annual list of The Most Powerful Lesbian Moms in America. The […]

“Mom’s Apple Pie”: A Tasty Slice of LGBT History

(Originally published as my Mombian newspaper column.) The so-called “gayby boom” may be a relatively new phenomenon, but lesbian moms have been a vital part of the LGBT rights movement since shortly after the Stonewall Riots in 1969. The documentary Mom’s Apple Pie: The Heart of the Lesbian Mothers’ Custody Movement gives us a look

Penguins Lose Top Spot on Challenged Books List

Author Lauren Myracle’s young adult series ttyl has topped the American Library Association’s (ALA) Top Ten list of the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2009. A “challenge” is a formal, written complaint to a library or school, “requesting that materials be removed or restricted because of content or appropriateness.” Ttyl gives us a look at

Breaking: Judge Strikes Down Arkansas Adoption Ban

A circuit judge today struck down Arkansas’ ban against unmarried couples adopting or foster-parenting children. The Arkansas law was approved by voters in November 2008, during the same election that in California saw the imposition of Prop 8, which halted the previous legalization of marriage for same-sex couples. The news must be particularly galling to

Weekly Political Roundup

President Obama issued a memo directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to ensure that same-sex partners have the same visitation rights as other immediate family members. HHS should “Initiate appropriate rulemaking . . . to ensure that hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid respect the rights of patients to designate visitors.” The

LGBT Parenting Roundup

Politics and Law Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida announced a series of improved policies “more responsive to the needs of the LGBT community.” The move was in response to a lawsuit brought by Janice Langbehn, who in 2007 was kept from her partner Lisa Pond who lay dying in the hospital. The couple’s three children

“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 104

I have a special guest this week while Helen is away on a business trip— our six-year-old son. He offers his thoughts on one of his favorite books of the moment, Redwoods, by Jason Chin. It’s not LGBT-related at all, but it’s delightful, and our son likes it, which is reason enough for me to

Become a Fan

I’ve finally decided to bite the bullet and move all Mombian Facebook goodness over to a Fan page. The Mombian Group has been growing strong—over 260 members at last count—but a Fan page makes a few things easier to manage for me. So: Even if you’re a member of the Group already, please click the

Collateral Damage

(This ran as my newspaper column on March 16, 2010. A few of the details on the McMillen prom case are a tad out of date, but the bulk of the piece still holds.) The Lego castle was almost done. It was a complicated thing, one of the most intricate constructions my then-preschooler had ever

New Gender Spectrum Web Site

Gender Spectrum, which “provides education, training and support to help create a gender sensitive and inclusive environment for all children and teens,” has launched a beautiful new Web site with a ton of information and resources. Parents of transgender or gender-variant children will find the site (and organization) of particular interest, but other parents and

Scroll to Top