Awful news seems to dominate lately: A school shooting in Georgia. A trans teen severely beaten in Massachusetts. Hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills. Violence and war around the world. An uncertain election. Add to this the varied challenges each of us encounters in our daily lives. How do we resist being overwhelmed?
In honor of Lesbian Visibility Day, here are some inspiring quotes from lesbian parenting books published in the 1980s through early 2000s. While these books are in many ways outdated, they still convey something of the spirit and long history of lesbian parenthood, and are reminders of those on whose shoulders we stand.
Kids aren’t the only ones to benefit from great LGBTQ-inclusive books this year. Here are some terrific reads for parents and prospective parents, too.
My son is in college now, but it feels like just yesterday he was in preschool and my day of queer parenting looked something like this.
It’s a tough time to be an LGBTQ parent in the United States. Between legislation that threatens our ability to form and protect our families, attacks on books and media that reflect them, and concerns that impact all parents, like school shootings and pandemics, we may feel stressed and overwhelmed. Without denying those ills or our need to address them (which I have covered before and will again), I want to focus here on a few positive things to keep in mind.
October is LGBTQ History Month, and I could write, as I have in the past, about the long history of LGBTQ parents, arguably going back to Sappho (7th-6th century BCE) and Alexander the Great (4th century BCE). This year, I instead want to remind us that we and our families are part of this long history, and to encourage us to think about how we can preserve our own family histories and pass them on to our children.
What did 131 lesbian moms, part of the first generation of LGBTQ families begun through donor insemination, say are the best and most challenging parts of 25 years of parenthood? A new study is the first to look at the overall experiences of any LGBTQ parents from their children’s conception through young adulthood, and sheds light on the ups and downs.
I’ve just updated my list of dozens of books, videos, and articles by people with LGBTQ parents—these have been among the most useful resources for helping me think about how to talk with my own son about our family structure.
A must-read for this President’s Day is writer and parent Jennifer Finney Boylan’s piece at Medium, “I’m all done explaining my humanity.” She’s talking about being transgender—but it’s a piece everyone should read, trans and cis alike.
A couple of recent articles look at the perspectives of children with LGBTQ parents—and I’ve pulled together a plethora of further resources.
