As this year’s LGBT History Month gets into full swing, I find myself wondering, “Who was the world’s first known LGBT parent?” To the best of my knowledge, she was the Greek poet Sappho, whose island home of Lesbos gave us the term “lesbian.” Sappho seems to have had a daughter named “Cleis”—meaning we can trace LGBT parents back to about 600 BCE.
Question: What 1952 — 1952! — book was about a married mother who leaves her husband for another woman, only to battle him in court for custody of their daughter? Read on for the answer, as well as more about the story coming to the big screen.
A treat for your weekend viewing: In honor of yesterday’s National Coming Out Day, Betty Crocker posted a wonderful video of LGBT families at the New York City and Twin Cities Pride events this year.
Today is National Coming Out Day. As I mentioned in my coming out resources post yesterday, I came out well before I became a parent. Yet even being out from Day One of parenthood doesn’t mean visibility is easy. Here are a few things my experience has taught me.
Tomorrow is National Coming Out Day. I came out well before I became a parent; other LGBT parents may be motivated to come out because they are becoming parents (like celebrity gay dads Ricky Martin and Clay Aiken each did). Still others come out to our children after the children thought we were straight or cis-gendered. For those in the latter category, here are some resources to help you do so. Tomorrow, I’ll post about my own experience and why I think being visible still presents challenges, no matter how out we think we are.
And the answer to yesterday’s LGBT History Month parenting trivia question is:
What better way to celebrate LGBT History Month than with a trivia question about a historical LGBT parent? Can you name this famous LGBT parent, described by his son as below (after the jump)?
(This is a slightly revised version of a piece I wrote for my Mombian newspaper column several years ago, but which seemed worth reposting in honor of LGBT History Month.)
Gay AmericaLGBT History Month is the perfect time to write about Linas Alsenas’ Gay America: Struggle for Equality (Amulet: 2008), a history of gay men and lesbians in the U.S. from the mid-nineteenth century through 2005. It fills a much needed gap, not because of the subject (there are a small but a growing number of LGBT-specific histories), but because of its audience: teens.
I originally wrote this for my Mombian newspaper column last year, but as it’s LGBT History Month once again, I thought I’d rerun it—a look at some of the historical milestones—of laws, visibility, and community—related to LGBT parents.
In honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights March on Washington this week, MomsRising.org has published a blog carnival, “Moms Get Real About Race in America.”
