LGBTQ civil rights icon Phyllis Lyon died yesterday from natural causes at her home in San Francisco. She was 95. She and her spouse Del Martin were the first same-sex couple to marry legally in San Francisco in 2008—but her contribution to LGBTQ equality goes far beyond that.
You may know Lesléa Newman best as the author of Heather Has Two Mommies—but she’s also an award-winning author of Jewish children’s books, including a recent one that’s just right for the holiday of Passover, which starts this week!
Isolating from a pandemic isn’t how I wanted my spouse Helen and me to spend our 27th anniversary. We usually go out to dinner and enjoy having someone else do the dishes. This year, we’re stuck at home, properly distancing ourselves from the rest of the world. Still, our weathering the pandemic together says more about our relationship than a fancy meal.
Nina Willbach and her wife, a Philadelphia couple, have been trying to get pregnant since last June via assisted insemination. On March 13th, they were told that their most recent attempt didn’t work—and they couldn’t try again because COVID-19 had put a stop to “elective procedures” in Pennsylvania. “I know a lot of folks are going through much worse right now, but it feels like a big blow when every month counts and we’ve had this many no’s,” Willbach told me in an online message. They’re not the only ones to have family-making plans halted during the pandemic.
Welcoming Schools, a project of the HRC Foundation, is now offering “Welcoming Schools Wednesdays”—a book and lesson plan for parents to use at home, based on the themes of “embracing all families, being an ally and respecting differences inclusive of LGBTQ identities.”
Family Equality has launched The Neighborhood: A Virtual Hub for LGBTQ+ Families to support all of us during these strange days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s full of activities for kids of all ages, parents, and prospective parents!
NASA Astronaut Anne McClain has spent 204 days in orbit, sharing tight quarters with other astronauts. In a recent post, she shared some tips for living in confined spaces—good advice right now as so many of us are holed up at home because of COVID-19.
There are many kids’ activity lists going around right now as we all stay home to slow the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19)—but here’s one especially for LGBTQ families and friends, with queer-inclusive virtual storytimes, coloring pages, games, videos, and more.
Many of us will be home with our kids for a while as our world tries to contain the Coronavirus. I thought this would be a good time to recap some of the recent queer and queer-ish kids’ books I’ve reviewed, to help keep kids entertained as we cope with this shift in our lives.
A South Carolina law banning any discussion of same-sex relationships in public school health classes (except in the context of sexually transmitted diseases) is unconstitutional, a federal court said yesterday.
