This edition of the roundup is particularly full of family profiles, plus a few other bits and pieces about queer doulas, book bans, and more that I haven’t covered elsewhere—including a reminder from actor Tig Notaro not to assume that what’s obvious to us is obvious to our kids!
Family Profiles: Moms
- LGBTQ Nation spoke with several two-mom families in Italy, who are (as I’ve reported), battling for recognition of nongenetic parents.
- VN Express International has more on the ramifications of Italian laws for queer families.
- The publication also interviewed Emily Drabinski, president of the American Library Association and a lesbian mom, about her efforts to fight book bans and protect librarians. Among other things, Drabinski notes, “So being out and open and talking about my identity and talking about my partner and the child we’re raising together and making sure that’s a part of my public conversation, I think, is useful.”
- Laura Hall, author of the memoir Affliction: Growing Up With a Closeted Gay Dad, wrote a shorter piece for HuffPo reflecting on her family.
- Jillian Abby, author of the memoir Perfectly Queer, wrote for The Mother Chapter about coming out after marrying a man and having kids.
- Actors Tig Notaro revealed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that the twin 7-year-old sons she’s raising with spouse Stephanie Allynne only recently learned that their moms were gay. “We realized that even though there’s pictures of our wedding day and they know they have two moms, that doesn’t mean they know what ‘gay’ is,” Notaro explained. As with most things, it’s funnier when Notaro tells it—here’s the video:
Family Profiles: Dads
- Kansas residents Jen and Whitney Wilson celebrate Father’s Day with their known donor, David Titterington, and all three spoke with NBC affiliate WRDE about their family’s experience.
- Daniel Redgert and his husband recently became parents of twins via surrogacy, and spoke with Forbes about becoming a parent, balancing parenthood and careers, what Pride means to him, and the advice he has for other LGBTQ prospective parents (starting with: “Remember that you’re not alone in this journey”).
- Reckon profiled dads of queer kids, mostly in LGBTQ-hostile states.
- Rashaun Kemp, who is running for the Georgia Senate, and his husband Ken spoke with GLAAD about being a Black, gay family in the Peach State.
- Bachelor star Colton Underwood and his husband Jordan C. Brown are expecting their first child, reports People.
Family Profiles: Nonbinary Parents
- Delaware state Rep. DeShanna Neal (D), Delaware’s first nonbinary state lawmaker and the parent of four children, spoke with LGBTQ Nation about their road to activism; bans on the picture book that they wrote with their daughter Trinity, My Rainbow, based on Trinity’s life as a transgender girl; maintaining a sense of humor; a perfect day with their kids; and more.
Family Profiles: Chosen Families
- Reckon shares the photos and stories from four queer people forming chosen families in anti-LGBTQ states.
Family Building
- “Queer doulas make childbirth safer for Black, brown, and LGBTQ+ people, but barriers remain,” reports News Is Out.
Schools and Education
- NBC News spoke with three teens in North Carolina about life under that state’s “Don’t Say Gay/Trans” law.
Books and Media
- Publishers Weekly shared a conversation among Stonewall Award-winning authors Leah Johnson, Kyle Lukoff, and Abdi Nazemian about queer children’s literature.
- Author Michael Leali wrote about “Winning the Culture War Against Queer Kids’ Books” for LitHub.
- WBUR explains “How PFLAG became a political force for LGBTQ rights.”