As we move forward to create a world of equality and justice for our families, I believe it is equally important to remember those in whose footsteps we tread. Audre Lorde, a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” who was born on this date in 1934, is certainly one of them. Here’s a passage from her about defining family that I’ve always liked.
This charming new book, The Very Beary Tooth Fairy, is not obviously gay-inclusive upon first read. But it does contain a hidden gay surprise—and both the author, Arthur Levine, and the illustrator, Sarah Brannen, are known in the LGBT community for their gay-inclusive works. This, their first collaboration, is a sweet tale that any family will likely enjoy.
The Illinois Senate voted on Valentine’s Day in favor of marriage equality, and the state House looks likely to follow suit. The best argument I’ve seen in favor of it is this essay from 10-year-old Braiden Neubecker, “My family and marriage equality.”
I’m still in a happy mood from Valentine’s Day yesterday, so I’ll start you off with some happy stories about happy families before segueing into some more political items.
Today we celebrate love. We should celebrate it all of the other days of the year, of course, but sometimes in the rush of parenting, and cleaning the house, and earning a living (okay, and blogging), it’s easy to forget to show it.
Dr. Susan Love is one of the world’s foremost breast cancer researchers and a tireless advocate for finding both causes and cures for the disease. Now, however, this lesbian mom is also a cancer patient.
Jennifer Gennari is the author of the new middle-grade book, My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer, about a girl living in Vermont with her mother and her mother’s soon-to-be fiancée, just after Vermont approved civil unions for same-sex couples. I reviewed it a few weeks back, and reached out to her to write a guest post for Mombian, which she kindly agreed to do. Below, she discusses the moment of homophobia against a teen in her community that led her to pen the book, and the personal experiences she wove into it. Thanks to her for sharing this with us.
Family Pride, by Michael Shelton, is a good book with a bit of an identity problem.
A Florida judge has allowed three people—two lesbian moms and the man they asked to be their sperm donor—to be listed on the birth certificate of their toddler. And the Dutch justice ministry is about to commission a report examining the possibility of recognizing three parents or more for one child. For some of the parents involved, this expanded recognition is good news; for others, not. But although three-parent recognition may seem newfangled, it has been around for longer than you might think.
In his second inaugural speech, President Obama linked “Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall”—the birthplaces of the women’s, Black, and LGBT equality movements—and reminded us of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words that (as Obama paraphrased) “our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.” A new book about two lesbian moms and their children reminds us that LGBT equality is indeed bound to the need for racial justice.
