Time for another roundup of a few stories I haven’t covered elsewhere, including ones on queer parents in history, medicine, fashion, weightlifting, the White House, and even horror films. Enjoy them as you get ready for tricks and treats (or just prepare to stock up on half-price Halloween candy tomorrow)!
Politics and Law
- The Advocate interviewed White House Press Secretary and lesbian mom Karine Jean-Pierre, discussing being the first Black, gay, Haitian American, and immigrant woman press secretary; the importance of other LGBTQ people in the administration; fighting current injustices, and more.
- A two-mom family in Canada is fighting to get the nonbiological mother recognized as a legal parent, reports Global News. Same-sex couples have been allowed to be on their children’s birth certificates since 2007, but this couple registered the birth as using a “known donor,” since they knew who he was, even though they didn’t know him personally and he had waived all rights. For couples using known donors, however, the only way to legally recognize the nonbiological parent is for them to adopt the child. (This is also the only way for a nonbiological parent in a same-sex couple to be fully recognized in the U.S., regardless of whether the donor is known.)
History
- Melissa Hart writes at LGBTQ Nation about The Lesbian Mothers’ National Defense Fund, which helped hundreds of queer women in the 1970s who came out and were threatened with losing custody of their children. Her own mother, who did not know about the organization, lost custody of Melissa and her siblings after coming out in 1979. Hart talks, too, about appearing in the fascinating 2006 documentary Mom’s Apple Pie: The Heart of the Lesbian Mothers’ Custody Movement, which I’ve also written about. (For more of Melissa’s story, see her full-length memoir Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood.)
Health
- LGBTQ Nation has named Dr. Tracey Weise a 2022 Hometown Hero for her work starting the first LGBTQ clinic in Alaska. It remains ‘the first and only non-profit clinic offering continuity of care for the queer community in the state of Alaska.” She and her wife have an 11-year-old daughter.
Entertainment and Sports
- Fashion designer, entrepreneur, and lesbian mom Jenna Lyons was announced as a cast member for the upcoming season of Real Housewives of New York. She’ll be the first out star in the New York branch of the franchise.
- Them takes a retrospective look at Disney’s animated show The Owl House and its groundbreaking LGBTQ representation.
- The New York Times profiles director and gay dad Ryan Murphy.
- PinkNews profiles “Britain’s Strongest Lesbian Couple,” Guinness World Record-holding weightlifters and moms Sue Taylor-Franklin and Sam Taylor of the U.K. As a 50-something mom myself, I was impressed to learn that “Sue, now 54 … didn’t lift a weight until she was 50.” (And if you’re into queers and weightlifting, don’t miss Strong, the picture book by “World’s Strongest Gay” Rob Kearney.)
- Actors Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge will be playing gay dads in the upcoming M. Night Shyamalan horror film, Knock at the Cabin, based on Paul G. Tremblay’s novel, The Cabin at the End of the World, reports the Star Observer.