Twelve-year-old Jak Guimbellot lives in Kansas with his two moms—and spoke out recently at a local city council meeting, urging them to pass an ordinance that bans anti-LGBTQ discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations.
Orca Book Publishers of British Columbia, Canada, is an independent publisher that has produced two of my recent favorite LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books: Pride Colors, by Robin Stevenson, a bright board book for the youngest tots, and A Plan for Pops, by Heather Smith and Brooke Kerrigan, a poignant story about a two-grandfather couple and their gender-ambiguous grandchild. Publisher and owner Andrew Wooldridge was kind enough to speak with me recently about the 35-year-old company and its goal of offering “reading material that represents the diversity of human experience to readers of all ages.”
NASA astronaut and Army Lieutenant Colonel Anne McClain could be the first woman on the Moon, reported Stars and Stripes last Thursday—one day before an accusation from McClain’s estranged spouse made headlines about a “crime in space.” Behind the headlines, though, is the specter of the question: “Who’s a parent?”
I’ve written numerous times before about the Trump administration’s efforts to allow discrimination against LGBTQ people and others in adoption and foster care and in health care. Now, they’re trying to allow similar discrimination in employment by an even wider range of companies.
Summer may sometimes feel like a slow time of year, but there’s still a lot happening in LGBTQ parenting news!
It took a while, but Mary Rowland, the first LGBTQ person nominated by President Trump to a federal judgeship, was finally confirmed last week by the U.S. Senate. How did Rowland, who once volunteered for the Obama campaign, manage to get appointed by Trump?
I have written about far too many mass shootings in the United States since I started this blog 14 years ago. I feel like I am repeating myself when I post about my fears—for my son, for all our children, for all of the children who will grow up without one or more parents lost to gun violence. When we tire of talking about it, however, we give the victory to those who support lax gun regulations or who use gun violence to express hatred and bigotry. Forgive me some repetition, therefore.
This past Pride Month saw an explosion of rainbows on products from sneakers to snack foods, reenergizing the debate over whether and how corporate America should be involved in Pride. For me, two things come to bear here: My belief that companies should support LGBTQ equality if they are going to market to us—and the fact that my family would not exist as it does now if it was not for the benefits my spouse and I received from the companies where we worked.
A married same-sex couple is suing the U.S. State Department for refusing to recognize the U.S. citizenship of their child despite the fact that both parents are U.S. citizens.
But is it ever really post-Pride? Let’s keep the feeling going all year. Nevertheless, let’s move through July with a look at some of the many recent pieces at the intersection of queerness and parenting.
