Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten have become parents. This puts them among the highest-visibility LGBTQ parents in the country, and that visibility has the potential to help further the acceptance of LGBTQ parents as a whole. They cannot, however, do this alone.
Some of the most exciting recent LGBTQ parenting news is that not one but two queer couples in women’s pro basketball are expanding their families! Watch a short film about one couple’s experience and see photos here.
Being a world-class athlete is hard. Being a parent at the same time is even harder. Yet of the 11 queer parents I know of who were competing in the Tokyo Olympics, six medaled (one twice!) and four came away with gold. That’s better than average odds, which I’d like to think means that being an LGBTQ parent increases your chances of getting an Olympic medal. (Well, maybe not—but read on for some fun if dubious statistics and a lot of appreciation for these athletes.)
President Joe Biden has recently nominated Charlotte Sweeney, a Colorado employee rights attorney, to the federal judiciary, and reappointed Sharon Kleinbaum, a New York rabbi, to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Both are also lesbian moms.
Please join me and other LGBTQ advocates and educators on Tuesday, August 3, for a Back To School LGBTQ+ Families webinar hosted by Out Leadership!
A humorous but pointed new video from Family Equality shows two dads answering their child’s question of “Where do babies come from?” by discussing lawyers, home studies, and bias against queer families. It reminds us that the path to parenthood for LGBTQ people is still full of obstacles and inequalities. Watch it here, just in time for Parents’ Day this Sunday, July 25.
It’s time for the Tokyo Olympics! As a fan and athlete, I will watch any event at any time—but I’ll be keeping a special eye on the queer parent athletes (and athletes with queer parents). Balancing parenting and high-level training, not to mention possible queerphobias—it’s a lot to handle, and they deserve our respect and admiration.
Massachusetts, which led the nation in marriage equality, has fallen behind in protecting the children of LGBTQ parents. It is now the only New England state that has not comprehensively reformed its parentage laws to protect children regardless of the circumstances of their birth or the gender or marital status of their parents. The Massachusetts Parentage Act (MPA), a bill now in the Legislature, could change that.
As July rolls on, here are a few news items for and about LGBTQ parents that I haven’t yet posted about. Catch up on what’s happening!
Imagine: U.S. civics lessons reframed as a call to action, set to rap, R&B, and pop music sung by some of today’s top artists, and skillfully animated, in a show created by Emmy Award winner (and lesbian mom) Chris Nee, with a theme song by Grammy Award winner (and bisexual mom) Meshell Ndegeocello, and an episode featuring Grammy Award winner (and lesbian mom) Brandi Carlile. Happy July 4, everyone—this thing exists! Listen to Carlile’s song here and learn how to catch the rest of this great new show.
