LGBTQ parents are in the news! Here are some of the stories I haven’t covered elsewhere.
Family Creation
- Jenny Kleeman at the Guardian looks at the opposition some have to two-men couples becoming parents via surrogacy.
- Goalcast profiles David Marshall, a single gay man in Baltimore who created the non-profit organization “Journey to Josiah” to help other prospective adoptive parents.
Politics and Law
- Cuba has approved marriage for same-sex couples, along with adoption rights and legal surrogacy.
- Euronews spoke with Alessia Crocini, president of Italy’s Rainbow Families organization, about the recent far-right win and what Giorgia Meloni’s prime ministership could mean for LGBTQ rights. And Reuters reports that an aide to Meloni “stood by a call to censor an episode of the popular children’s cartoon Peppa Pig which featured a polar bear with two mothers, saying gay parents cannot be presented to minors ‘as an absolutely natural fact.'”
- Yle News reports on families with same-sex parents in Finland. A fall in the number of adoptions by same-sex couples is attributed to the 2019 Maternity Act, in which the non-pregnant parent in a female couple may claim parenthood at a clinic before the child’s birth, if the couple was treated at an official fertility clinic, gave mutual consent, and used donor sperm from a person who does not claim parenthood.
- Kelley Robinson, a progressive leader who most recently served as executive director of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, will become the next president of HRC, the largest LGBTQ advocacy organization in the U.S. She’s also a new mom.
- Slovenia has legalized marriage and adoption for same-sex couples
Entertainment
- Comedian and actor Rosie O’Donnell responded in People to her daughter Vivinenne’s comments that it wasn’t “normal” to have a lesbian icon for a mother. (Sounds like they were both joking around, and it was the “icon” part that offered the most challenges, not the lesbian part.)
- Singer Kehlani will play a new character on the upcoming (November 18) season of The L Word: Generation Q, Entertainment Weekly reports. The character, Ivy, “will be working on Alice’s (Leisha Hailey) show and be re-entering the world of dating after having a baby.” As always, I’ll be offering commentary on all of the parenting storylines in the show.