Lots of great family stories this time, plus a few other bits of news from round and about. Have a read!
Must Read
- “I was surprised to learn on Sunday morning that I do not exist. This will come as sad news to my children, to whom I’ve been a mother for over 20 years now,” writes Jennifer Finney Boylan in the New York Times, about the Trump administration’s plan to define gender as immutable and set at birth. Her piece will give you hope.
Family Profiles
- Stephanie Fairyington writes about being a nonbio mom—and what happens when her child favors her bio mom—in “Can There Really Be Two Moms?” for the New York Times.
- Amber Leventry shares how being a nonbio mom impacted their desire to explain their children’s sperm donor to them, and what knowing their children’s donor siblings means to their family, in “My Kids Have Sperm Donor Siblings, And This Is What That’s Like,” at Scary Mommy.
- Anna and Renee McInarnay, a couple in Mississippi, gave birth two days apart, the latest in a number of two-mom families who had simultaneous pregnancies.
- Jen Colletta, who was my editor at Philadelphia Gay News for several years and is now a new mom, reflects on the sleepless, chaotic first weeks of having a newborn—and the best piece of parenting advice she’s gotten.
- Ruth Davidson, a Member of the Scottish Parliament, and her partner, Jen Wilson, welcomed their first child. Davidson leads the Scottish Conservative Party and was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine.
- Sphen and Magic, the two male penguins incubating an egg at Sydney Sea Life Aquarium (see my previous mega-penguin post) are now the proud new dads of baby Sphengic.
Politics and Law
- In a first-of-its-kind ruling, the Polish Supreme Administrative Court has ruled that a two-mom couple has the right to put both their names on their son’s Polish birth certificate. The boy was born in London and both his moms’ names are on his British birth certificate.
- A committee of the Israeli legislature postponed voting on an amendment that would expand eligibility for state-supported surrogacy to include single men and gay couples. The Israeli government has also just signed an agreement with Russia that helps Israeli different-sex couples—but not same-sex ones—adopt Russian babies.
Entertainment
- In a confluence of celebrity gay dad goodness, Neil Patrick Harris and his husband David Burtka took their kids to fellow dad Elton John’s concert.
