Today is World AIDS Day. Since so many other LGBT sites are ably covering how HIV/AIDS impacts the LGBT community, I want instead to highlight once again some recent statistics about HIV/AIDS and children. There has been a drop in new infections over the last few years, but even so, the numbers are still sobering.
Yes, there is more to Hanukkah music than “I Had a Little Dreidel,” elementary school music teachers notwithstanding. But while this week’s once-in-a-lifetime concurrence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah has led to any number of new “Thanksgivukkah” songs, sometimes I just want the classics. And Julie Silver’s bluesy rendition of “Dreidel” makes what can sometimes be a tired old number seem cool again.
Miss the Twitter party on travel for LGBT families a few weeks ago? It was an hour of non-stop stories and ideas — so much so that one of the hashtags was trending for some time. The Residence Inn team has recapped it on Facebook; Traveling Mom has culled some of the many responses to each question; and The Advocate has recapped it as well. Check them out for ideas to make your next trip a great one!
Today marks the 15th International Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. My thoughts today are with all of the transgender community, their parents, children, and friends.
Jehanne McCullough is 17, a senior at the Maryland School for the Deaf, and has two moms. She recently gave a presentation at the 2013 Jr. NAD (National Association of the Deaf) Conference, in which she discusses her moms and what schools can do to be more inclusive of children with same-sex parents. Watch the video below.
Two pieces caught my eye this week that take a nuanced and unflinching look at the challenges and joys of having lesbian moms. Personally, I love reading pieces by grown children of LGBT parents. It’s useful to read things by other LGBT parents, of course — but the perspectives of those who have LGBT parents help me better understand how my son might view certain things in his world as he grows up. (Not that everyone who has LGBT parents will think the same — but they help me realize some of the possibilities.)
Next Wednesday (Nov. 20), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) will premiere the documentary “Growing Up Gayby,” which follows a filmmaker with lesbian moms as she herself interviews “a slew of ‘gaybies’” and right-wing pundits “in an attempt to make sense of what ‘family’ is in the 21st century.”
I have a new post up at HuffPo that I hope you’ll pop over and read (and please “Like” it over there if you enjoy it): “In the Sandbox.” It’s a revised version of an old piece from when my son was younger, describing the first time another child asked him, “Where’s your dad?”
Adoptive lesbian moms Bianca Monreal and Tonie Alfonso, profiled at HuffPo, said that they believe gay people are particularly suited to be adoptive parents.
Jennifer Neuman-Roper, mother of three, spouse of Angelique Neuman-Roper, and a plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit for the right to marry in New Mexico, died Friday at age 44 of brain cancer, The Advocate reports.
