Come have a read of some LGBTQ family stories, political news, entertainment, and even a few science tidbits that I haven’t covered separately!
Family Profiles
- Katrina Anne Willis wrote at HuffPo about being a mother who came out late in life—read her story and then go check out these two recent memoirs by other women who followed similar paths.
- The Advocate interviewed Emma Mulvaney-Stanak (P), the new mayor of Burlington, Vermont, and a queer mom of two, about her vision for the city and about being a mom in politics.
- LGBTQ Nation profiled Illinois state Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D), and a queer mom of three, about working to make the state more LGBTQ inclusive.
- Travel + Leisure magazine shared the story of Jonathan Bailey, founder of LGBTQ family travel blog 2 Dads with Baggage.
- Serana Darkmoon and Austin Dalton, who are both trans, spoke with the Topeka Capital-Journal about the recent birth of their infant. (Includes video with adorable infant!)
- The U.K.’s Daily Mail profiled Emily Patrick and Kerry Osborn, who not only did reciprocal IVF (RIVF; like my spouse and I), but did so simultaneously, with both pregnant at the same time.
- Ellen Ruckmann-Bruch, daughter of dads Rudiger Ruckmann and Ben Bruch, has won Honolulu Waldorf School’s annual spelling bee two years in a row, reports the Honolulu Star-Advertiser (via AOL), and is the first known participant in Hawaii at the school, district, or state preliminary level of the Scripps National Spelling Bee with Down Syndrome.
- Yahoo! Life reports that “The Gen Z kids of LGBTQ parents are all grown up and sharing their childhood experiences on TikTok.” (Well, some of them are, anyway; let’s not assume that everyone wants to share equally or feels safe doing so.)
Politics and Law
- The 19th reported that more states could be covering fertility treatment for LGBTQ couples in light of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s new definition of “infertility,” a topic I’ve also reported on.
- WPRI reported on pending legislation in Rhode Island that would include same-sex couples in fertility coverage.
- Washington State has a new law requiring public schools to teach about the contributions and history of LGBTQ people, joining California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey and Oregon, which have similar laws. Schools will be required to update their curricula for the 2025-26 school year.
- Unfortunately surprising no one, the Washington Post reported that “In states with laws targeting LGBTQ issues, school hate crimes quadrupled.”
- The Tennessee legislature has passed a bill that would allow LGBTQ children to be placed with anti-LGBTQ families, while in contrast, the Colorado legislature has passed one that would enshrine into law state guidelines requiring that foster parents allow the name, pronouns, and gender expression that an LGBTQ child uses. ABC News opined, “With a Republican in Tennessee’s governor’s mansion and a Democrat in Colorado’s, both bills are expected to be signed into law in the coming days or weeks.”
- The island of Jersey (not the U.S. state) is updating its laws to provide paths to legal parentage by both members of a same-sex couple, as well as different-sex couples who use donor sperm and couples who are in civil partnerships, not marriages.
Entertainment
- Fashion designer and queer mom Jenna Lyons is returning to The Real Housewives of New York City for its 15th season, per GLAAD.
Science
- The New York Times informed us that scientists have spotted a bird in Columbia, a green honeycreeper, with bilateral gynandromorphism. This rare condition manifests itself in one half of the bird having female plumage and the other half male plumage. (In some cases, the internal sex organs also match the external plumage, although this specimen was only observed remotely, so that remains a mystery here.) We should be careful not to make facile analogies between this and being human and nonbinary, of course; the takeaway to me is simply that sex and gender expression can manifest in nature in a range of ways, and that’s glorious.
- Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University are developing a technique to turn a skin cell into an egg capable of producing viable embryos. The technique, in vitro gametogenesis (IVG), could be used by couples with infertility or by male couples wanting a child genetically related to both parents. Don’t book your appointments yet, however; one of the lead researchers “said it will be years before the technique would be ready for clinical use.”
