Halloween is almost upon us, the holiday that underscores like no other that society has certain gender expectations for boys and girls. Girls, by and large, are princesses; boys tend towards the violent as superheroes, Star Wars characters, soldiers, or pirates. But each year, it seems, at least one family makes the news because their child wants to defy those boundaries.
How do we help our parents as they age? For adults with non-LGBT parents, there are plenty of resources on how to help parents through the various legal, financial, and emotional issues of growing old. Search the Web or your favorite online bookstore for “aging parents,” and you’ll be swamped with results.
For adults who wish to help their LGBT parents, however, the resources are far fewer. And while many of the issues older LGBT and non-LGBT people face are the same, some are not.
OK, let’s have a little group participation on this one. I need to get a birthday present for a classmate of my third-grade son. The boy is friendly enough to invite my son to his party, but not in the “best friends” category. I’ve never met the boy or the parents. Other than “Star Wars,” my
What can bathroom signs tell us about gender, sex, and society? Plenty, according to this great article by Marissa at The Society Pages, a multidisciplinary social science project organized by the University of Minnesota’s sociology department. Marissa has gathered an extensive, thought-provoking, and occasionally hilarious collection of bathroom signs from around the world. (A few
The federal Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form asks applicants to list their “mother/stepmother” and “father/stepfather.” But applying for aid, if you have same-sex parents, isn’t just a matter of crossing one of those out and writing in the correct term, says Tara Siegel Bernard of the New York Times in her piece, “How to File for Financial Aid if Your Parents Are Gay.”
Get your “I Love My Mummies” t-shirts and other kid apparel in the Mombian Store at CafePress. Thanks to my own “mummy” for providing the drawing.
It’s National Coming Out Day once again, so I hope you’re having a happy day no matter where you are in your coming out journey. Here’s an updated version of a piece that sums up a lot of my thoughts on coming out as an LGBT parent. It has become something of a truism in
I posted this newspaper column of mine last year, but I think it bears repeating as part of LGBT History Month. Enjoy this look back at how lesbian moms have been a central part of the LGBT rights movement since the beginning—while simultaneously waging some intensely personal battles to maintain contact with their children.
Like Steve Jobs, my father passed away recently because of complications after pancreatic cancer. If you want to learn more about this disease, I recommend checking out the Lustgarten Foundation, which is dedicated to its treatment, cure, and prevention. I’m also going to jump on the bandwagon and share the Steve Jobs video that is
San Francisco mayoral candidate Bevan Dufty, a gay dad, has a new ad out featuring him and his daughter. The wonderful thing about the ad is that they could be any candidate and child—the fact that he’s a gay dad is completely incidental. The ad is very sweet—and that’s not an adjective I often use
