Selves and Identities

Conference Offers Lifeline for Gender Variant Children, Families

(Originally published as my Mombian newspaper column.) The two eight-year-old girls said that meeting each other was like a dream come true. They both had similar interests—gymnastics, dance, singing, and songwriting—and similar styles in hair and clothing. Not only that, but for each of them, it was the first time they had met another child […]

A Parent By Any Other Name

I’ve been delighted and fascinated by your great responses to yesterday’s unscientific survey on what our kids call us—so much so, that I’m going to encourage readers again to participate, if you haven’t already. (Please click the link to submit your answers to the spreadsheet; don’t just leave a comment.) So far, we’ve got lots

What Do Your Kids Call You? An Unscientific Survey

One of the first questions that crosses prospective LGBT parents’ minds is “What will our kids call us?” And many of us also search for what to call donors, surrogates, birth parents and other similar figures in our children’s lives. So here’s a small way to share some of that information—just fill out the anonymous form below.

Coming Soon: Conference for Gender Non-Conforming Children, Youth, and Their Families

Gender Spectrum, an organization that provides “education, training and support to help create a gender sensitive and inclusive environment for all children and teens,” is hosting their annual Gender Spectrum Family Conference at the end of the month. I’ve never been, myself, but I’ve heard good things about it. (Please leave a comment if you’ve attended,

Butches and Babies: Tumblr Love

There’s nothing I want to share with you more today than Butches & Babies, a delightful new Tumblr microblog site by Meaghan O’Malley. (Thanks to lesbian wonderland Autostraddle for the tip.) Meaghan brings together butch, “in all of its iterations,” and babies (“human”), saying that she’s “fascinated by the juxtaposition of a baby nestled in a butch’s

Proud Parents

I keep seeing bumper stickers around town with slogans like, “Proud Parent of a Middle School Honor Student,” and “Proud Parent of a Soldier.” They remind me, in this season of LGBT Pride, of how often “pride” is associated with both LGBT identity and parenting. We LGBT parents have a lot of which we can be proud, in a lot of different ways.

Lesbian Mom Writes About Her Gender Variant Daughter

There’s been a growing amount of coverage lately about parents supporting their gender variant and/or transgender children—most recently in a worthwhile New York Times article last week. Veronica Rhodes of Parent Dish, however, gives us a perspective seen even less often—that of a lesbian mom with a gender variant child. Rhodes explains the extra criticisms

Happy 15th Birthday, WNBA!

The WNBA is 15 years old today. I remember being at the first game in 1997. (For those doing the math: the league was founded in 1996, but play began in 1997.) That means some of the players were my son’s age (eight) or younger when the league began. Now I feel old. Former WNBA

Parents Increasingly Accepting of Children’s Gender Variance, Says NYT

The New York Times ran a must-read article yesterday on gender variance in children, “Boys Will Be Boys? Not in These Families.” Parents, says author Jan Hoffman, are increasingly accepting of gender nonconforming behavior in their children. “Rather than looking away,” she writes, “they are trying to understand their toddler’s unconventional gender behavior, in order

“Mr. Mom” and Musings on Parenting and Gender

Over at Viva la Feminista, Veronica has a great post about why she dislikes the term “Mr. Mom” and when someone asks her husband if he is “babysitting” the kids. She writes, “When he is caring for his daughter, he is her father, not a babysitter and certainly not a male version of me.” Amen

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