Isolating from a pandemic isn’t how I wanted my spouse Helen and me to spend our 27th anniversary. We usually go out to dinner and enjoy having someone else do the dishes. This year, we’re stuck at home, properly distancing ourselves from the rest of the world. Still, our weathering the pandemic together says more about our relationship than a fancy meal.
Gay Parent Magazine spoke with me recently about my family, my career, and the origins of Mombian—and the interview is in its latest issue, available now.
Mary Griffith, a conservative Christian who came to champion LGBTQ equality after the death of her gay son in 1983, died last Friday at her home in California. Her journey inspired a book and the award-winning movie based on it, Prayers for Bobby.
The end-of-year holiday season is hard for me now that my parents have passed. Thanksgiving had always been my Jewish family of origin’s time to gather. My brother and I have continued to celebrate Thanksgiving with our immediate families and his wife’s parents, but the absence of our parents makes the occasion bittersweet. I miss them, too, at Hanukkah, when we always lit a menorah and exchanged gifts. I’m finding comfort this year, however, in a new project to uncover and preserve our family history.
Let’s continue the conversation about gender and parental identity with a look at a recent piece by a butch mama about her princess-loving daughter. It also involves Boris Karloff, the actor who famously played Frankenstein’s monster, which seems appropriate given that Halloween is this week.
A new documentary now on the film festival circuit follows three sets of queer parents and their teenage children more than a decade after they were first profiled by the same filmmaker. Watch a trailer and learn more about the families.
Twelve-year-old Jak Guimbellot lives in Kansas with his two moms—and spoke out recently at a local city council meeting, urging them to pass an ordinance that bans anti-LGBTQ discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations.
“Thank you in advance for letting me be your mom,” wrote Braiden Schirtzinger in a letter to their future child, halfway through their pregnancy. Schirtzinger has shared more of their journey to parenthood—and their intertwined journey to self-understanding as a nonbinary person—with the Washington Post for a lengthy feature article and podcast episode.
NASA astronaut and Army Lieutenant Colonel Anne McClain could be the first woman on the Moon, reported Stars and Stripes last Thursday—one day before an accusation from McClain’s estranged spouse made headlines about a “crime in space.” Behind the headlines, though, is the specter of the question: “Who’s a parent?”
This roundup is full of thoughtful, mostly longer pieces, including ones about being lesbian, bisexual, and nonbinary parents, and coming out after a heterosexual marriage and kids. Come have a read!
