The news has been coming in fast, so here’s a roundup of some LGBTQ parenting stories you may have missed, including political news, a groundbreaking donation, and a sports section full of athletic achievements, admirable advocacy, and new baby announcements.
Politics and Law
- After pressure from the Trump administration, Massachusetts has removed rules requiring foster parents to support a child’s gender identity and sexual orientation, and replaced them with a non-specific requirement that they support a child’s “individual identity and needs,” reports WGBH. Polly Crozier, director of family advocacy at GLAD Law, told the station that “the state remains responsible for the safety and well-being of every child in its care—and that includes LGBTQ children”—an important point that I hope people will remember. The situation reminds me, however, of that around anti-bullying laws, where laws that specifically enumerate and prevent bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity are more effective in stopping such bullying, as GLSEN reports. Although LGBTQ foster children should still be supported in their LGBTQ identities even now, the removal of language specifically stating this feels like a definite step backwards.
- The Massachusetts parent who is seeking to keep his son out of classroom activities where books depicting same-sex parents are shown (as I reported here) has won a preliminary injunction in a U.S. district court, reports the Boston Globe.
- Erasing 76 Crimes, a news site that focuses on efforts to repeal 65+ countries’ anti-gay laws, highlights a new Cameroonian study on the social, legal, and financial obstacles to queer parenthood in that country, where for queer people, “starting a family is also an act of resistance.”
- LGBTQ Nation interviews Minnesota U.S. Rep. and lesbian mom (and grandmother!) Angie Craig, who is running for U.S. Senate, and who fought a long battle in the late 1990s to be able to adopt her first son.
- The new Dutch Ambassador to Vietnam will be Remco van Wijngaarden, currently the country’s ambassador to Thailand. His husband Carter Duong made the announcement on Instagram, noting that the couple and their three kids will now be moving to Hanoi, where his mother and grandparents were born.
LGBTQ Youth
- While I usually cover parents who are LGBTQ more than I do LGBTQ youth (unless the former happen to have the latter), I do think it’s worth noting that philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has given $45 million to The Trevor Project, the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit organization for LGBTQ+ youth. The organization called the gift, the single largest in its history, “transformational” and “an investment to support the organization’s long-term sustainability and impact for LGBTQ+ young people.”
The Sports Section
- Tatyana McFadden, the most decorated U.S. Paralympic track and field athlete, was honored with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Endowment’s William E. Simon Award, which “recognizes individuals who have advanced the ideals of the Olympic and Paralympic movements through their sustained actions and exemplary deeds.” McFadden, who was raised by a two-mom couple, shared this year’s award with Greg Louganis, an out gay man who is widely considered the greatest diver of all time.
- Helen Carroll, who led the UNC-Asheville women’s basketball team to the 1984 NAIA national championship, and who served as athletic director at Mills College and sports director for the National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR), married her girlfriend Kelly Burnette, another athlete and LGBTQ sports advocate. Carroll is 73 and marrying for the first time; she has twins from a previous domestic partnership, reports Outsports.
- Amanda Timpson of Yesterqueers shares the real-life “Heated Rivalry” story of Canadian hockey star Caroline Ouellette (now an assistant coach of the PWHL’s Montreal Victoire) and U.S. hockey star Julie Chu (now head coach of the Concordia Stingers women’s ice hockey team). The couple are married and have two kids.
- WNBA stars Allie Quigley and Courtney Vandersloot’s baby won a crawl race at a DePaul vs. Michigan game in December. Clearly she had good coaching (though I’ll quickly say this all seemed to be in good fun and not an example of parents pushing their kids too hard)!
New (and Pending) Roster Additions
- Retired Australian soccer Lydia Williams and spouse Grace, who married in December, welcomed their first child, Coen Ronald Anne Williams.
- Spanish soccer star Esther González and spouse Estefanía Cruz have welcomed their first child.
- Irene Paredes, a Spanish soccer player, and partner Lucía Ybarra, a Spanish field hockey player, have announced they are expecting their second child.
- English soccer star Claire Rafferty and spouse Erica Cleary have announced they are expecting their first child in May.