Today is Spirit Day, an observance begun in 2010 in response to the increasing number of young people known to have died by suicide after relentless bullying. Much of the focus is on harassment and bullying of LGBT youth (or those perceived to be), and rightly so—but let’s not forget that children of LGBT parents, regardless of whether they are LGBT themselves, may also be targets.
Spring Valley Hospital in Clark County, Nevada, has denied a lesbian the right to make medical decisions for her pregnant domestic partner. When Brittney Leon and Terri-Ann Simonelli went to the hospital in July after Leon began experiencing complications with her pregnancy, an admissions officer told them that Simonelli could not make medical decisions for Leon without a power of attorney—despite the fact that they are legal domestic partners in the state, which should give them the same rights as married couples to make medical decisions for each other. Leon ended up losing the pregnancy.
A very happy 40th birthday to PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays)—the nation’s largest grassroots-based non-profit for families, friends, and straight allies of LGBT people. Not everyone is pleased to hit middle age, but I have to imagine the folks at PFLAG are pretty excited.
Several children’s health care facilities, including one of the top children’s hospitals in the country, were named “Leaders in LGBT Healthcare Equality” in HRC’s 2012 Healthcare Equality Index (HEI).
The Latter-day Saints (Mormons) as a group are not known for being particularly accepting of LGBT people. What happens, then, when a young person in a Mormon family comes out as LGBT? The Family Acceptance Project (FAP) at San Francisco State University, which has long studied and addressed the impact of family acceptance and rejection on the health and mental health of LGBT youth, has just released a new faith-based family education resource to help guide Mormon families in supporting their LGBT children.
At least two of the entries to Blogging for LGBT Families Day were from lesbian moms whose children have serious illnesses. Jaime and Laura of Team Shimmy have a son with cardiomyopathy (whom I’ve mentioned before); Brooke and Liz of Lenox Slays the Leukemiasaurus have a daughter with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). I want to offer a special thanks to them for sharing their stories, not just on Blogging for LGBT Families Day, but on all the other days when they write about the good and the bad, the ordinary and the extraordinary, of their lives. They offer a gift to other families facing similar situations.
Because Brooke asked directly, “Hello? Any other lesbian moms going through this now? What is your experience like?” I also wanted to offer this post as an attempt to facilitate such connections.
I don’t need to tell most readers that LGBT youth are at a higher risk than their non-LGBT peers for attempting suicide. Until today, however, no “Best Practices” have been identified or designated to help reduce vulnerability and risk among LGBT children, youth or adults. That has now changed.
Last week, after I posted the short documentary “Listen from the Heart,” several of you said you said you were touched by the story of lesbian moms Laura Fitch and Jaime Jenett, and their son, Simon Lev Fitch-Jenett, who is battling cardiomyopathy, a serious heart condition. Turns out they have a blog, and so my Post of the Week comes from them.
Today marks the 16th annual Day of Silence, an event sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) where students from middle school to college take some form of a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment. Looking back at my posts from previous years for and around the event, however, I have to ask myself: Are things getting better?
What would you do if two young bullies began harassing the children of gay dads in a restaurant? More to the point, what would you expect the general public to do? ABC News asked that question and set up a situation using actors for both the children of gay dads and the bullies. Hidden cameras taped patrons’ reactions.
