(Originally published in Bay Windows, May 15, 2008.) “It’s the book I wish I’d read when I was 13,” says Vermont writer Jennifer McMahon about her new young adult book, My Tiki Girl (Dutton/Penguin: May 2008). “I wish I had a time machine to send it back to my 13-year-old self. When I fell in
Two days ago, California became the second state to legalize marriage of same-sex couples. Today marks the fourth anniversary of the first legal marriages of same-sex couples in Massachusetts; the 54th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, and the 18th anniversary of when the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental
Helen and I bring you the first signs of what could be growing ultra-right opposition to Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, a new children’s book featuring gay guinea pigs. (Regular blog readers will know about this from my earlier post; since this video is crossposted at After Ellen, though, there’s sometimes a little overlap in order to
A bevy of stories about LGBT families of different shapes, sizes, and colors: Cathy Drake and Ilene Gottlieb of Cornwall, NY met on a blind date on Mother’s Day three years ago, reported the Hudson Valley’s Journal News last Sunday. They were celebrating not only their anniversary, however, but also the birth of their three
For those of you in the Boston Area: The Cambridge Center for Adult Education is hosting a panel discussion on same-sex parenting tonight from 8:00-9:30 p.m. at 56 Brattle St. The cost is $10. I’ll be covering the event for Bay Windows; if you’re going, make sure to say hi. (I’ll have red hair and
Some of you may have heard or read NPR’s recent piece (and followup Q & A) on two young boys expressing female “gender preferences.” The boys’ parents each sought the help of a different psychologist. One went to Dr. Diane Ehrensaft, a psychologist and gender specialist in Oakland, CA. She described the boy as transgender,
Slate did a weekend review of “Super Books for Pretty Good Moms: Parenting guides that won’t make you even more anxious than you already are.” Whether you’re an anxious parent or a calm one, you’re most likely familiar with how the media plays up these anxieties (and then tries to sell us the solutions). This
Raising a child takes at least 18 years, though some would say it is a lifetime’s work. Why then, has television representation of LGBT families focused primarily on the initial stages of family creation, and not on the later years? Almost every adult lesbian on television has had a storyline revolving around her attempt at
Happy Mother’s Day to all of you who call yourselves mothers. We may come by the title in different ways, but the one thing we all share is a love of our children. I found it interesting that two lesbian-mom authors this week wrote of the difficulty of sharing Mother’s Day with another mother. Harlyn
Sometimes, I hate being right. It wasn’t a stretch of the imagination to foresee that the new storybook Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Sarah Brannen, would be a target for the right. I didn’t imagine they’d quote me while doing so, however. The conservative publication Town Hall just published the article “Librarians Against Censorship,” by Brent
