Personal stories, political moves, and celebrity news I haven’t covered elsewhere (or that bear repeating).
Personal Stories
- Lesbian and gay parents face unique challenges, says the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Nice profiles of several families.
- Comedian and lesbian mom Judy Gold explains “The Question You Should Never Ask a Lesbian Mom“: “Who’s the real mom?” So many of us can unfortunately relate.
- Elizabeth, who is transgender, writes at The Gay Dad Project about why she would love to be a mother someday and her thoughts about coming out as trans to her children. A touching piece from a little-heard perspective.
- Patty Onderko writes at iVillage of “18 Things No One Told Us About Being a Same-Sex Parent.” Some of the items overgeneralize (despite her claim to the contrary, my partner and I never argued over what our child will call us), but others are spot on.
- Slate shares part of photographer Alix Smith’s “States of Union” project, “a six-year series that focuses on photographing gay families through traditional portraiture.” It’s not exclusively about families with kids, but there are a lot of us included. (For more great photos of same-sex couples, check out the new book Capturing Love: The Art of Lesbian & Gay Wedding Photography. It’s meant as a guide for photographers, but may provide inspiration to couples themselves.)
Politics and Law
- A bill in Texas would allow the names of both same-sex parents to go on supplemental birth certificates for their adoptive children.
- Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) reintroduced the Uniting American Families Act, immigration reform legislation that would allow Americans to sponsor a same-sex partner for a green card.
- In the long-running custody battle and now parental-kidnapping case between Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller, a pastor who was convicted of helping Miller leave the country with the former couple’s daughter, was returned to jail after refusing to tell a grand jury what he knew of Miller’s flight.
- A U.K. court ruled that known sperm donors can apply for contact with their biological children.
- Ontario’s first woman premier and Canada’s first out LGBT premier, Kathleen Wynne, is also a lesbian mom.
- Mosaic, Scotland’s new “LGBT news and lifestyle magazine,” has a piece by Chris Creegan on adoption by same-sex couples and the Catholic adoption agency that is (surprise, surprise) making things difficult.
Celebrity News
- Country singer Chely Wright and her spouse Lauren Blitzer-Wright are expecting twins in July.