This week’s highlighted post, “Pregnancy Changes Things,” comes from Yin of Living a Loving Life as Wife and Wife. She talks about how pregnancy has changed her relationships with her partner, her mother, and her friends. It’s a quiet reflection on changes that I’m guessing many others have felt, too.
There are big changes afoot here at the House of Mombian. I’m delighted to report that I’ve just taken a part-time job as the Online Content Manager for the SEED Project on Inclusive Curriculum, a 26-year-old diversity program that helps educators “examine contemporary scholarship as well as ‘the textbooks of our lives’ in order to inform community conversation about schooling and culture.” It explores gender, race, culture, sexual orientation, and other aspects of identity, and prepares educators to bring their learnings back to their own schools.
(I wrote this for my newspaper column a couple of months ago, but never posted it. Enjoy.)
This column marks five years of Mombian columns for me. Looking back, it’s been a time of tremendous change for LGBT families and for me personally. I’ve learned a lot over these years, both as a parent and a chronicler of our LGBT parenting experiences. The best part of doing this column has been speaking with a wide variety of LGBT parents, authors, activists, and others working towards equality for our families. If my words here mean anything, it is because they have been informed by theirs. Here are a few of the things I’ve gleaned along the way.
Once again, it’s time to highlighting a post from an independent parenting blogger that has especially caught my eye. This week, it’s “Parenting without gender expectations means accepting all outcomes,” from Aly Windsor, who is parenting two kids with her partner and just started blogging at Embrace Release.
One of the strengths of the LGBT parenting community is that we are a community. Whether online or in real life, we can share, support, and learn from each other. In order to help LGBT families connect with each other, the Family Equality Council today released “Promising Practices,” a toolkit to help those who wish to create new LGBT family support groups, and to help strengthen existing ones.
A new report out today from the Movement Advancement Project and a coalition of partners details the lives of children living in LGBT families of color. Among the findings of the report: LGBT families are more racially and ethnically diverse than families headed by married heterosexual couples. LGBT families of color face greater poverty.
You’ve heard of Thomas Edison—but have you heard of Margaret Knight? She was a contemporary of Edison and the holder of at least two dozen U.S. patents. (Some sources say nearly 90, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says 26, and I take them for the authority.) She created her first invention, a safety mechanism for mechanical looms, when she was only 12.
I’m starting a new feature here at Mombian, highlighting some of the posts from independent parenting bloggers that have especially caught my eye. I’ll keep the more “newsy” items in my LGBT Parenting Roundups—what I want to feature here are more personal posts about our lives as parents and LGBT people.
Last night’s Glee dealt with a tough and timely topic, bullying-related suicide. Even if its treatment felt somewhat superficial and hurried, it will have served its purpose if it helps save even one life. As a lesbian mom, too, I found it particularly interesting that when Kurt (Chris Colfer) is helping Karofsky (Max Adler) imagine a future to live for, he asks him think about having a son and taking him to his first football game. Karofsky’s face lights up at the thought. Fictional though the scene is, it reflects the truth that LGBT young people today can envision a future that includes children.
I spent President’s Day weekend with my family in a most appropriate place: Washington, D.C. I’m still catching up on laundry and such, so for today, please enjoy an image from our visit to the National Museum of American History. The museum, part of the Smithsonian, is now the repository for the papers and materials of LGBT equality pioneer Frank Kameny, as explained in a museum blog post last October.
