December 2012

My Thoughts Are in Connecticut

I am stunned and horrified by the school shooting in at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut today, that left 27 dead, including 18 children. I grew up in Connecticut. My own son is in elementary school one state over. Not that the nearness should matter—this is a tragedy for our whole country. My thoughts are with the families and community in Newtown, and I can find no more words right now. Give your kids extra hugs today. I know I will with mine.

Alan Cumming’s “Any Day Now” Shows the Power of Unintentional Families

Any Day Now, the new feature film starring Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt as a gay couple in the 1970s who foster a teenager with Down Syndrome, is a refreshing reminder that LGBT families have a long history of coming together in unexpected ways, against the odds. Other recent fictional portrayals of LGBT parenting have focused on upper-middle class families, deliberately becoming parents and secure in their parental rights. Not so here.

2nd Book Giveaway: “My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer”

Congratulations to Lydia, who won Tuesday’s giveaway of Jennifer Gennari’s LGBT-inclusive middle-grade book My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer. If you didn’t win (or didn’t enter), however, don’t despair. Here’s another chance to do so.

“Do You Miss Not Having a Father?”

Australian filmmaker Maya Newell gave one of the best responses I’ve ever seen to the mistaken assertion that all kids need a mother and a father.

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Of Family and Technology

Gina Trapani is best known as the founder of the Lifehacker blog, but also began a much more personal venture this year—her own family. She wrote recently about her and her wife’s path to parenthood in “How to Make a Baby” for The Magazine. When a piece begins, “Choosing a sperm donor is a little bit like setting up an Xbox avatar,” you know it’s worth a read.

Giveaway: LGBT-Inclusive Middle-Grade Book, “My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer”

I’m so excited—a new, LGBT-inclusive book for middle-grade readers, and a delightful one, at that! Jennifer Gennari’s My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer is about coming-of-age, coming out about one’s family, and baking pies. I’m happy to be doing a giveaway of two copies of the book, courtesy of publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: one today, and one later this week. Read on for details.

LGBT Parenting for Beginners

BlogHer Section Editor Melissa Ford (also of Stirrup Queens) recently asked me to write a piece for the BlogHer Absolute Beginners series, a “Crib Sheet” (love the name) about being the LGBT parent of an infant. I hope you’ll go have a read.

Coverage of Supreme Court, DOMA, and Parental Rights Misleads

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday that it will review the Prop 8 case and another case challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), speculation has been running amuck in the LGBT blogosphere. What does it mean? What if we lose? What do we gain if we win? As with many legal matters, especially for us non-lawyers, the issues are are complicated. A major newspaper, in fact, has just published an article that spreads a misconception about what the Supreme Court review could mean for same-sex parents.

Janice Langbehn Reflects on Washington Marriages, Her Own Activism

In 2007, Janice Langbehn and her three children were denied access to her dying partner and the children’s other mother, Lisa Pond—a tragedy that helped motivate President Obama to revise hospital visitation rules to allow same-sex partners. She also lives in Washington State—and in a new blog post, “My Missteps,” reflects on the state’s new marriage equality law and her own path to activism.

What may surprise readers is her concern that she didn’t do enough soon enough for our community—striking words from the woman who in 2011 received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian honor.

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