This edition includes two (!) stories about queer moms both giving birth and gaining doctorates within ridiculously short time frames; two involving reciprocal in vitro fertilization (RIVF); legal inequalities in fertility care and parentage; the profile of a beloved bisexual children’s author; and more that I haven’t covered elsewhere.
Family Profiles
- Tamiah Brevard-Rodriguez went into labor the night before she was scheduled to defend her doctoral dissertation at the Rutgers-New Brunswick Graduate School of Education, reports Rutgers Today (via LGBTQ Nation). She gave birth to the child in her wife’s sports car as her wife zoomed them towards the hospital. She then chose to continue with the defense from her hospital bed just seven hours later, and completed it with success.
- In an only slightly less hair-raising tale, Sarah Tov and partner iea tov were ready for Sarah to defend her Ph.D dissertation at the University of Washington, graduate, and then give birth to the twins she was carrying, created via RIVF with iea’s eggs. The twins came prematurely, though, only three days after Sarah’s successful defense. The staff at the hospital therefore threw her a graduation party right in the hospital—and then threw the twins a party when they “graduated” from the NICU, reports Good Morning America. Click through for photos of the family and the teeniest graduation gowns you’ve ever seen.
- Speaking of RIVF, Good Morning America also profiled spouses Lauren and Amanda Brown, who likewise created their family with the same method (as did my spouse and I). Lauren, the gestational parent, is now pregnant as the surrogate for a gay couple, Stephen Elkind and Matthew McConnell. (Follow the Browns on Instagram at thetwomom_browns; Elkind is at elkindest and McConnell’s account is private.)
- Fertility care is still full of inequalities, though; moms Amanda and Nia spoke with HuffPost UK about how “Our IVF Journey Highlighted To Us The Inequality Of Same Sex Fertility Treatments In The UK.”
- The parenthood journey continues past family creation: Sa’iyda Shabazz of Autostraddle spoke with several queer moms about how they came out to their kids and how they felt about doing so.
Politics and Law
- A Louisiana court has ruled that a nongenetic dad is not a parent to the child he and his ex-husband planned for, had via surrogacy, and began raising together, reports Louisiana’s The Advocate. The article notes, “Under Louisiana law, a man is presumed to be the father if his wife gives birth to a child while they are married. Louisiana is one of several states that has not extended that presumption of parentage to non-biological spouses in same-sex marriages.” (Want to know more about how parentage laws apply—or don’t—to LGBTQ parents? See LGBTQ Paths to Parentage Security, a guide that GLAD and I created.)
- President Biden in April established a new rule clarifying that Title IX protects LGBTQ students from discrimination. A federal judge has blocked the rule from taking effect in four states (Alaska, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming) and several other places involved in a lawsuit against the rule.
- California has enacted a law prohibiting schools from outing LGBTQ students to their parents without the student’s permission, but one school district has already filed a lawsuit challenging the legislation.
Media and Entertainment
- Metro profiles Swedish-speaking Finnish author Tove Jansson, who was bisexual and whose life and relationships were often subtly reflected in her beloved children’s series The Moomins.
In Memoriam
- Rabbi Jenn Weinstein and her wife Andrea Termotto already had one young child when Termotto became pregnant with twins. Right after Termotto gave birth to the twins, she found herself unable to breathe—and died 10 hours later. Weinstein spoke with People about the tragedy and why she is talking about what happened, saying, “There are so many people out there that just need to hear her story, and just need to know of another rock star human that showed up for people in the world, even if it meant giving her own life.”
- Technology entrepreneur Bruce Bastian, who had four children with his wife before coming out as gay, leaving the Mormon Church, and becoming an advocate and funder of LGBTQ causes, has died at age 76, reports the Advocate. (As happens, I wrote all of my papers in college on the WordPerfect software he created.)