Catch up on some LGBTQ parenting stories that I haven’t yet posted about, including an inspirational read about the resilience of LGBTQ parents and a podcast episode about two women who fought for their love for 30 years!
A Must-Read
- Cathy Sakimura, deputy director and family law director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, writes at The Advocate about the resilience of LGBTQ mothers and parents. “LGBTQ+ mothers and nonbinary parents, especially Black, Indigenous, and POC parents, parents experiencing poverty, and parents living in countries that criminalize LGBTQ+ identities change the world through the seemingly simple act of loving and raising our children,” she says.
Family Profiles
- Good Housekeeping profiles five LGBTQ families, including LGBTQ parents and parents of LGBTQ children, about why they support the Equality Act. The magazine has clearly changed a lot since my early impressions of it as a slightly old-fashioned magazine for older generations!
- Marilyn J. Jordan and Naomi W. Scales, authors of the memoir From Pain to Love: Our Journey Outside the Rainbow, about their 30-year battle to be together, were featured on the great podcast If These Ovaries Could Talk (audio).
- Survivor’s Ricard Foyé and husband Andy Foyé talk with E! News about their journey to parenthood, with Andy, a transgender man, carrying their two children, one born in 2019 and one last June, in the midst of the pandemic. Among other things, they share how they explain different kinds of families to their kids and the message they’d send to trans kids today.
- The New Indian Express profiles gay dads Vignesh and Andrea of Sydney, Australia, whose Instagram account Dads of Meenakshi shares snapshots of their life with daughter Meenakshi, although they consciously keep “the most private moments” with her to themselves.
Family Formation
- A gay couple is suing the city of New York for discrimination because the insurance policy for city employees does not cover IVF (in vitro fertilization) without a proof of infertility, defined as “’12 months of unprotected intercourse’ or intrauterine insemination,” (IUI) which makes it impossible for couples using a surrogate. (Gestational surrogacy requires a donor egg, so plain IUI won’t work; they have to use IVF.)
- Same-sex couples in the U.K. also face hurdles to starting their families because of restrictions on IVF, requiring expensive attempts of (non-IVF) assisted insemination first, reports Forbes.
- The New York Times looks at how global events, such as the pandemic and the Russian invasino of Ukraine, are creating a shortage of surrogates and problems for already-pregnant surrogates.
More Politics and Law
- While I have covered Florida and Alabama’s recent enactment of “Don’t Say Gay (or LGBTQ)” bills, NPR reminds us that more than a dozen states have pending legislation that would in some way restrict discussing gender identity or sexual orientation in schools.
- Sarah Longwell offers her opinion in the Washington Post about why she objects to “Don’t Say Gay” bills as both a lesbian and a conservative.
- Trans activist and mother Precious Brady-Davis is running for Chicago’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Commission, reports LGBTQ Nation. If elected, she would be the first out trans woman of color elected in Chicago history. (Read more about her in her memoir, I Have Always Been Me.)
- The Danish government is setting up a working group to consider ways of establishing legal parentage for the nonbiological parent when a two-dad couple uses surrogacy, reports the English-language Danish newspaper CPH Post. It is also considering the possibility of recognizing three parents, both dads and the person who carried the child (presumably as an option, but not a requirement, for parental trios who want that).
- Jérôme Roux, a French gay single father of an American infant, who has lived in the United States for more than 15 years, has won a battle over his immigration status, which he says was hindered by former President Trump’s policies, reports The Advocate. He must now, however, submit adoption paperwork to the French consulate in order for France to recognize his son’s (dual) citizenship there, since France does not allow surrogacy, but will grant “an adoptive filiation” to children born by surrogacy to French citizens abroad.
Unicorn Controversy
- Amidst all of the bans and challenges to books that are “inappropriate” for children because they include LGBTQ characters or topics, this might be the most ridiculous. Author Jason Tharp had been invited to visit a school in Ohio, where he planned to read from his book It’s Okay to Be a Unicorn. Tharp told CBS affiliate WBNS that the principal asked him over the phone not to read the book, then sent an e-mail asking him not to read that another one, It’s Okay to Smell Good, which is about a skunk. ABC affiliate WSYX reports that the parents objected because the book could be promoting a “gay lifestyle.” The district then told WSYX that the book was not banned, his visit would proceed as planned, and “he is able to present his message to our staff and students.” It’s funny: The book is in my database, but I almost didn’t put it there because the LGBTQ content is so slight—an analogy about inclusion and being oneself that could also be an analogy for other things. The parents who objected to it show just how panicked some people have become over the idea that their children might be exposed to anything even vaguely related to LGBTQ people. Next thing you know, they’ll be banning hummus and granola from school cafeterias so the girls don’t all become lesbians.