If you don’t watch Glee regularly, or missed it last Tuesday, get thee to the Fox Web site and watch it. Not only were there two—count ’em, two—queer storylines, but they were handled with a sensitivity and honesty that puts most other shows to shame. (If you don’t believe me, go read Dorothy Snarker’s perspective […]
Maybe it’s the fact that my last name is the same as the famous reindeer, but I couldn’t help writing a little piece over at Change.org on what Rudolph might say as part of the It Gets Better campaign in support of LGBT youth. Hope you’ll go have a read. And who here also thinks
It may seem obvious to many of us: LGBT youth whose families are accepting of their LGBT identities are more likely to become happy, healthy adults, and less likely to have depression, suicide risk, substance abuse, and similar problems. But Dr. Caitlin Ryan of the Marian Wright Edelman Institute at San Francisco State University, in
Today marks World AIDS Day. AIDS continues to impact many people we know and many communities of which we are part. Since this is a parenting blog, however, I want to do what I have done in previous years, and highlight some recent statistics about AIDS and children. The numbers, of course, don’t capture the
New results from the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), the longest-running and largest study of American lesbian families, has found that the among the 78 17-year-old children of lesbian mothers in the study, none report having ever been physically or sexually abused by a parent or other caregiver. This contrasts with 26% of American adolescents who report parent or caregiver physical abuse and 8.3% who report sexual abuse.
(Originally published as my Mombian newspaper column, October 13, 2010.) Children in the LGBTQ community are dying. As LGBTQ parents, we need to be on the front lines working to help them. We’ve all heard by now of the string of suicides by youth bullied because they were LGBTQ or perceived to be. Children of
Brett Berk, a former teacher and preschool director and author of The Gay Uncle’s Guide to Parenting, might be expected to have a few thoughts on the subject of bullying and schools. We’re lucky he’s taken time from his more recent topics of Glee and cars to ask (and answer): “Would Kids Be Such Incorrigible Bullies
If you don’t yet know the films of Groundspark’s Respect for All project, you really should—and now you can do so for free. Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Debra Chasnoff and her team have created a lauded series for students and educators about family inclusion, gender stereotypes, and bullying. In response to the recent media attention
There’s been a lot written on the recent bullying-related suicides. I found this piece by Rabbi Victor Appell, “If Only Tyler Clementi Had Been to a Gay Synagogue,” particularly moving. Too often religion and LGBT rights are set up as opposites; Appell shows us how they don’t have to be, and how “coming out in
At a time when our community is already grieving too many of its young people, here is another story to break your heart. Frankie Valencia, Jr. was randomly shot by a gang member in Chicago last fall. As if that wasn’t tragic enough, his non-biological mother, Siu Moy, was fired from her job after his
