Here’s some of the recent news about LGBTQ parents and our families that I haven’t covered separately, from reflections on parenting to political news and more. Have a read and be informed!
Family News and Reflections on Parenting
- Jen Colletta at Philadelphia Gay News shares: “In today’s environment, what I want my boys to learn — and unlearn,” writing, “What we parents can all do, and what I believe is the single most important thing for the future of this country, is raise this next generation to be better.”
- Filmmaker Aditi Anand, who is raising a five-year-old with her partner Susan Dias in Delhi, spoke with the Times of India about her experience parenting and about same-sex parental rights in India.
- Wicked star Kyle Dean Massey and husband Taylor Frey welcomed their third child, People reports.
- Parents magazine looks at “trends” shaping modern parenthood, including “divorce, family timing and size, adoption, and LGBTQ+ families.” The article asserts “LGBTQ+ Parents Have More Rights,” which is true, if you’re looking across decades—but it fails to note the struggles for recognition and representation that we continue to have and that have grown in recent years. Still, it’s good to see a mainstream parenting magazine showing LGBTQ families as just another part of the fabric of family life.
Books and Writing
- Author Claire Lynch has won the 2025 Nero Gold Prize for her first novel, A Family Matter, about a lesbian mother who lost custody of her child in the 1980s and the repercussions this had on several generations of the family. (H/t Go Magazine.) It’s based on real-life experiences of queer moms and I highly recommend it. (Note that it’s a book intended for grown-ups, not kids.) The Nero Book Awards are a not-for-profit organization started and managed by independent, family-owned coffee house group Caffè Nero, in partnership with The Booksellers Association, Brunel University of London and Right To Dream. Awards are given to books first published in English in the UK or Ireland, and the Nero Gold Prize is the organization’s highest honor.
- Chaaz Quigley of LGBTQ Nation profiles Black lesbian poet and activist Pat Parker. Quigley notes that Parker wrote about motherhood; for additional context, I’ll add that she raised two children whom she had in early relationships with men before coming out as a lesbian. In her 1978 poem “Where Will You Be?” (which is as relevant today as ever), she asserts that although queer people are often called perverts, it is silence in the face of fascism and oppression that is truly perverse. I encourage you to read the whole thing; here’s just one verse on motherhood:
Everytime we let a lesbian mother
lose her child and did not fill
the courtroom –
It was an act of perversion.
Political and Legal News
- Montgomery County schools, the Maryland district that was the target of parents who wanted to opt their children out of LGBTQ-inclusive books in the classroom, has reached a settlement (PDF) with the parents after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against them in Mahmoud v. Taylor last June. The plaintiff parents will receive a $1.5 million payment. The district must also institute policies and “shall notify the Plaintiffs in advance whenever one of the books in question or any similar book is to be used in any way and shall allow Plaintiffs to have their children excused from that instruction.” The district will alert parents of all materials to be used in classrooms, identify ones “that address the family life and human sexuality objectives,” require teachers to provide parents with additional information when asked, and allow parents to excuse their children if desired.
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has published proposed federal regulations to remove requirements that LGBTQ foster children be placed in homes supportive of those identities. The regulations reverse those established under President Joe Biden and align with the ruling from a U.S. District Court in Texas last year, which said that the regulations exceeded HHS’s statutory authority. The proposed regulations are open for a mandatory period of public comment through April 6, 2026.
- Alexis Jackson, a Black queer mother in Virginia, writes in RVA Magazine, “My Family Deserves to Exist.” She and her wife started their family via reciprocal IVF (like my spouse and I), and she is urging people in Virginia to vote in favor of the Reproductive Freedom Constitutional Amendment that will be on the state ballot in November, and which would enshrine the right to abortion, birth control, miscarriage management, IVF, and other fertility and reproductive health care in Virginia. “This is not abstract policy. This is real life. This is my son’s life,” Jackson says. (I’ll point folks to Planned Parenthood’s action site if you want to know or do more.)
- In a landmark ruling in Italy, the Court of Trieste recognized the parental rights of noted archeologist and non-gestational mother Federica Fontana to the children she and her partner Emanuela Murgia had via IVF abroad—but sadly, the ruling came because Fontana had died and Murgia sought for their children to have access to Fontana’s pension and other benefits. Italy itself still bans IVF for same-sex couples, and Italian LGBTQ families have been in a long battle for recognition. Alessia Crocini, president of Famiglie Arcobaleno (Rainbow Families), the country’s organization for LGBTQ families, said in a statement:
This is a historic decision, but it shouldn’t be. It’s unacceptable that in 2026, the rights of the sons and daughters of same-sex families still depend on the courts, or worse, on the families’ ability to endure long and painful legal proceedings. Parenthood cannot be erased by a legislative vacuum or by death, and continuing to pretend otherwise is a deliberate political choice, one that has concrete consequences for children’s lives. Our deepest sympathy goes out to Federica Fontana, Emanuela Murgia, and their daughters. [Google Translate translation; see link for original Italian.]
- Maibritt Henkell of The Argument astutely writes, “Many things are bad for children, but having gay parents still isn’t one of them.” The article looks at the most recent threats to our families and resonates with my own thoughts on this and on what research has shown us over the years.