What Is Mombian?
The two-time GLAAD Media Award-winning Mombian is one of the longest-running LGBTQ parenting blogs. As a lifestyle site for lesbian moms and other LGBTQ parents, it offers a mix of parenting, politics, diversions, and resources, including news about LGBTQ families, parenting tips, reviews of LGBTQ-inclusive family books and media (and a large, searchable database of them), and political and legal news and commentary with an eye towards their impact on LGBTQ families.
Mombian launched in 2005 to address the lack of sites with current, practical news and information for LGBTQ parents, or sites that looked at other aspects of LGBTQ culture with a parent’s eye. In 2006, it also created and hosted the annual Blogging for LGBTQ Families Day, which has evolved to become LGBTQ Families Day, a day of social media posting and sharing in celebration and support of LGBTQ families.
The Mombian newspaper column, which launched in 2007, is one of the longest-running columns on LGBTQ parenting in the country, and runs in Bay Windows, Dallas Voice, South Florida Gay News, Philly Gay News, and Between the Lines newspapers.
Awards
- Winner, Outstanding Blog
- Hostetter-Habib Family Award from Family Equality Council, given at their annual Night at the Pier gala in May 2018.
- Finalist for “Best Large Blog” in the 2008 Weblog Awards, the world’s largest blog competition, and finalist for “Best LGBT Blog” in the 2007 Weblog Awards.
Media Mentions
- “Women We Love 2022: Dana Rudolph,” GO Magazine, June 23, 2022.
- “Dana Rudolph is the One-Woman LGBTQ Parenting Resource We Need,” Tagg Magazine, March 3, 2021.
- “The Straight Parents’ Guide to How Not to Raise a Homophobe—and How to Be a Better Ally,” Slate, May 25, 2015.
- “America Studies the Numbers and Decides Same-Sex Marriage Adds Up,” The Times (London), May 19, 2015.
- “The Unromantic Reason Couples May Soon Be Tying the Knot,” TakePart, May 15, 2015.
- “Dungeons and Dragons Embraces LGBT Characters: ‘Think Outside Binary Notions’,” The Independent, July 24, 2014.
- “‘Mombian’ and the Rise of Lesbian Mom Blogs,” NY Magazine’s “The Cut,” April 2, 2013.
- Mentioned in New York Times article on leading marriage equality lawyer Mary Bonauto, March 28, 2013.
- Mentioned in Curve magazine, December 2008: “Although YouTube is synonymous with the Internet’s vlog revolution, a more fruitful search for lesbian voices would be through AfterEllen, where the cornucopia of online video fare has been harvested into a unique collection of female vlogs. From Kate Clinton to Mombian.com’s Dana and Helen, and with various weekly contributors in between, the vlogs at AfterEllen cover a multitude of topics.”
- Profiled in the December 18, 2007 issue of the Advocate, “America’s leading gay news and entertainment magazine.” (Article not available online.)
- Named #2 among “Top 10 Best Lesbian Blogs” by the Lesbian Life site at About.com (a New York Times company): “For the lesbian moms out there, and even those of us who aren’t parents, Mombian is a great site with tons of resources: book and toy reviews, travel tips for lesbian moms, health and safety news and even recipes for vegan cake. And Mombian is host to the annual Blogging for LGBT Families Day. Check out Mombian, even if you aren’t a mom.”
- Profiled in Bay Windows, New England’s largest LGBT newspaper, in 2006: “Rudolph bills Mombian.com as ‘Sustenance for lesbian moms,’ offering her witty take on both the practical, political and just plain silly sides of lesbian parenting.”
Who’s Behind It?
I am a lesbian mom living with my spouse of 30 years. We have a son in college.
In addition to my Mombian work, I have also covered LGBTQ legal and political news as a correspondent for Keen News Service. I have had pieces appear in numerous LGBTQ newspapers in print and online, including Bay Area Reporter, Bay Windows, Between the Lines, Dallas Voice, Georgia Voice, Metro Weekly, LGBTQ Nation, South Florida Gay News, and Windy City Times. I’ve had pieces appear in the Huffington Post, the Washington Post’s “On Parenting” site, Women’s Review of Books, an independent supplement to USA Today produced by Mediaplanet, the Advocate, Autostraddle, and 365gay.com. I was also an associate editor of The Bilerico Project, a leading LGBTQ group blog.
Speaking appearances include:
- Panelist, “Queer and Trans Mothers: The Legal Landscape in 2022,” webinar hosted by Our Family Coalition, March 2022.
- Speaker/Session Leader, “Family Ties: The Movement Forward for LGBTQ Parents,” Family Institute at Creating Change, Houston, Texas, January 2014.
- Panelist, “Mom Blogging: The Next 10 Years,” BlogHer ’14, San Diego, Calif., August 2014.
- Moderator, featured panel on parenting, Out & Equal Workplace Summit, Los Angeles, Calif., October 2010.
- Panelist, “Minding Your Own Business: When Diversity is Simply Good Business,” BlogHer ’11, San Diego, Calif., August 2011.
- Moderator, featured panel on parenting, Out & Equal Workplace Summit, Los Angeles, Calif., October 2010.
- Keynote speaker, Working Mother magazine’s first “L-Moms and Allies Breakfast,” New York, N.Y., January 2009.
- Closing keynote panelist, “Change Your Future; Change the World,” BlogHer Boston 2008.
- Panelist, “Group Blogging,” National LGBT Blogger and Citizen Journalist Initiative Summit, Washington, D.C., December 2008.
- “Blogging and Online Activism” presentation on the 2007 R Family Vacations summer cruise.
- “Blogging and Online Activism” presentation at 2007 Family Week in Provincetown, Mass.
I have over a decade of experience as a marketer in the online industry, at both the startup and corporate levels. Most recently, I was the online content manager for the National SEED Project (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) at the Wellesley Centers for Women, which trains leaders to facilitate their peers in conversational communities that drive personal, organizational, and societal change toward social justice. (On this blog, I have always spoken solely for myself, not my employer.)
Before that, I was a vice president at Merrill Lynch, developing marketing and business strategies for several key online initiatives. I was also the first leader of the firm’s global LGBTQ employee network.
I was a NCAA varsity fencer, a member of the Oxford Blues fencing team, and hold a black belt in taekwondo. I’ve also made serious forays into rock climbing, cycling, running, and yoga.
I have a BA summa cum laude from Wellesley College in Astronomy and Medieval/Renaissance Studies, and an M.Phil from Oxford University in History.
— Dana Rudolph (she/her)
