Happy November 18th! Today is the anniversary of the historic 2003 ruling that made Massachusetts the first U.S. state to allow same-sex couples to marry. It also marks the 2003 repeal of the U.K.’s anti-LGBTQ Section 28 law. Additionally, it’s the “Massaversary” of when my spouse and I legally wed (though we celebrate our true anniversary in April).
A big thanks to all veterans for your service and the sacrifices you and your families have had to make. For Veteran’s Day and any day, here are some ways the rest of us can support veterans, LGBTQ and not. (Me? I’m making my veteran spouse an especially nice dinner tonight.)
A new film on the life of the 75-year-old transgender activist Mama Gloria (Gloria Allen) is “the story of a mother’s love—the love that Gloria’s mother had for her and the love that Gloria has for her chosen children. And it is fueled by the love that filmmaker Luchina Fisher has for her teenage transgender daughter, Gia.”
A new documentary profiles comedian and parent Julia Scotti, who has performed in clubs and theaters throughout the U.S. and Canada since 1980. After a ten-year hiatus and a transition to her true self as a transgender woman, she came back to her career in 2011 with more shows, a CD, an appearance on “America’s Got Talent,” and a reconciliation with the children from whom she’d become estranged.
GLAAD’s annual Spirit Day today is a time to speak out against anti-LGBTQ bullying and stand with LGBTQ youth. That’s a tough mandate at a time when our country is led by someone for whom bullying and name-calling is a way of life, but it’s also all the more reason to focus our attention on the problem.
GLSEN’s latest biennial National School Climate Survey, released yesterday, looks at the challenges that LGBTQ students face in school, the effects of a hostile climate, and the supports that can offset those effects—while also looking back at trends over two decades.
Could you use something uplifting right now? I sure could—and a short new video that celebrates LGBTQ elders and youth champions is putting a smile on my face this National Coming Out Day.
It’s International Lesbian Day, so let’s celebrate with the latest results from the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), the longest-running study on any LGBTQ-parent families. This summer, the project published a study of the relationships between the adult offspring of lesbian parents and their unknown or known donors.
Author Jaqueline Woodson yesterday was named one of the winners of this year’s MacArthur “genius grants”—one of at least three queer moms ever to win the accolade.
An estimated 19 percent of transgender adults in the U.S. are parents, according to a new study—the first to use a nationally representative sample of transgender parents and nonparents. The study authors also hypothesize that the fulfilling experiences of parenthood may even improve transgender parents’ well-being and help counter the negative effects of stigmatization in a cisgenderist/heterosexist society.
