LGBT Parenting Roundup — Mothers’ Day Edition
A very happy Mothers’ Day or Mother’s Day to you, no matter how many moms you are celebrating! Here are some mom-related stories of note this week:
Raising
LGBT Parenting By Any Other Name
I have a love-hate relationship with the term “LGBT parenting.” On the one hand, I often say I write a column about LGBT parenting, insofar as I write for and about LGBT people who are parents. On the other, I believe that we LGBT folks change diapers, sing lullabies, help with homework, and drive to soccer practice like any other parent. There’s no “LGBT” way (or even, separately, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender ways) of doing those things—which makes me doubt whether there is such a thing as “LGBT parenting.” Is there?
Happy International Family Equality Day!
Today marks the first-ever International Family Equality Day, an event designed “to bring together LGBT families of all kinds to celebrate their family pride and ongoing efforts for full family equality,” Family Equality Council, one of the participating organizations, tells us.
Post of the Week: “We Don’t Go Long”
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.
New Blog Talks of Families “Beyond Blood”
Dr. Abbie Goldberg, author of the highly recommended Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children: Research on the Family Life Cycle, is now blogging at the Psychology Today Web site in a new column, “Beyond Blood.”
Lesbian Swans Return to Boston Public Garden
Led by a brass band, the two swans named “Boston’s most famous waterfowl” will parade to their summer home in the Boston Public Garden today, welcomed by Mayor Tom Menino and other local luminaries. Despite their names—Romeo and Juliet—they are in fact a same-sex female pair who laid eggs and prepared for parenthood together.
The Most Powerful Lesbian Moms in America 2012
How time flies! Out magazine just published its sixth annual “Power List” of the most powerful LGBT people in America, which means it’s time for my (unrelated) sixth annual list of The Most Powerful Lesbian Moms in America.
Lesbian Mom Expelled from Boy Scouts Speaks Out
I wrote the other day about Ohio mom Jennifer Tyrrell, whom the Boy Scouts expelled as den leader of her son’s Cub Scout troop because she is a lesbian. Now, her Change.org petition asking the Boy Scouts to reconsider their policy of not permitting gay Scouts or leaders has gained nearly 130,000 signatures. Tyrrell also
Devotion Project Documentary Shows Devotion of Lesbian Moms
Got 10 minutes? You’d be hard pressed to find a better way to spend it right now than to watch “Listen from the Heart” (after the jump), a short documentary film that profiles lesbian moms Laura Fitch and Jaime Jenett, and their son, Simon Lev Fitch-Jenett. The moms talk about dealing with their son’s serious heart condition, being a stay-at-home mom and an employed mom, respectively, being pregnant and butch, managing their relationship to each other, and more. The film is part of The Devotion Project, a series of six films showing “LGBTQ couples and the love they share.”
Breaking the Silence: Today and Every Day
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?