After a lawsuit by a queer mom, insurance giant Aetna has said it improperly denied her fertility coverage and will review similar cases. Whether this means a larger change towards equal treatment of LGBTQ people under their policies remains an open question.
All three queer parents who competed at the Paralympics this year won medals, including gold!
It is not coincidental that shortly after September 11, 2001, my spouse and I began to talk seriously about having a child, after more than eight years together. Many of us have a 9/11 story. Here’s mine.
Tatyana McFadden last Saturday won her 20th Paralympic medal—8th gold—and set her 3rd world record! A new picture book biography traces her life from an orphanage in Russia, to being raised by two moms, to becoming “the fastest woman on Earth.”
The Texas abortion ban that was just upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court is a hugely frightening development for anyone who can get pregnant and for anyone who cares about reproductive rights, including not only abortion access but also assisted reproduction. That’s enough to make it a queer issue—but it has even more possible ramifications for other civil and human rights issues, including LGBTQ rights.
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!
