Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day—but it also kicks off No Name-Calling Week, “an annual week of educational activities aimed at ending name-calling of all kinds and providing schools with the tools and inspiration to launch an on-going dialogue about ways to eliminate bullying in their communities.”
The Oxford Union Society, the venerable debating society whose membership comes mostly from Oxford University, held a debate yesterday on the motion, “This house would be glad to have gay parents.” The motion passed, 345 to 21—but not without controversy. Those arguing in favor of the motion were Benjamin Cohen, founder of PinkNews.co.uk and Out4Marriage, Richard Fairbass,
I often write about schools and education, but mostly from the perspective of parents or students. Debbie of A Day Is Short is a teacher, however, and wrote yesterday of her experience coming out to her third-grade class, in the context of her pregnancy and impending parenthood. It’s a raw, emotional post about the struggle of trying to be honest with her students while facing the fear of homophobia.
Wendy and Karen have been blogging at 2 Moms – It can be done since 2006. I liked Wendy’s recent post, “One Little Word 2013 — Manifesto,” because it not only gave me a glimpse into her own life, but also made me think about my own goals for the new year in a different way.
Drop what you’re doing and take six minutes to watch this video. Trust me. Noah St. John is only 15 years old, but won NPR’s Snap Judgment show’s “Performance of the Year” award for his story about his two moms. I love it not only because of St. John’s amazing delivery, but also because he doesn’t hesitate to show that LGBT families face the same ups and downs as any others.
The world has lost a pathbreaker. Jeanne Manford, founder of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), passed away today, barely a month after celebrating her 92nd birthday.
Parenting magazine has named lesbian mom Jennifer Tyrrell one of its “Best Parents of 2012.” The Ohio mom has been speaking out since April when the Boy Scouts of America told her that because of her sexual orientation, she could no longer serve as the den leader of her son’s Cub Scout chapter.
Wow. I take a New Year’s vacation with my family for a few days (about which more later), and look what happens: The first baby born in France in 2013 has lesbian moms.
Yesterday, I posted my column about the December 14th school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Today, I’m honored to bring you a guest post from my own mother, who had her own thoughts and offered to share them here. Some of our thoughts (not surprisingly) overlap, but she adds her own perspective as a mental health professional.
Thanks, Mom!
(I wrote this for my newspaper column the day of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. I hope 2013 is the year we as a country begin to take serious steps to ensure such tragedies never happen again.)
This was going to be a very different column. Then 20 children died in Connecticut.
