Stop what you’re doing and go watch this endearing short film about a girl with two moms learning about her creation. The daughter is played by Bea Miller, who went on to a top-10 spot on The X Factor and has two moms in real life!
It’s been all over the news for the past few days: a discovery that within two years, could allow “same-sex parents” to both be genetically connected to their child. Most news outlets have neglected to mention one small fact, however: It will likely only work for two dads, not two moms.
I wrote at the beginning of November about an effort to publish Zak’s Safari: A Story about Donor-Conceived Kids of Two-Mom Families, a book for and about donor-conceived kids of two moms. I’m happy to report that (perhaps thanks to many of you) it’s been funded and the book is now available on Amazon.
It’s time for another roundup of LGBTQ parenting news! Here are a few of the stories I haven’t covered already.
The majority of lesbian moms who conceived through donor insemination are satisfied with their choice of a known, unknown, or open-identity (child may contact when 18) donor, according to new research based on the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), the longest-running and largest study of U.S. lesbian families.
As a mother who used a sperm bank to start my family, and as someone who works in my day job for a program that addresses racial inequities, among others, I feel compelled to write about a disconcerting lawsuit that has been making headlines: That of a lesbian mother suing a sperm bank for sending her the wrong sperm — something she discovered only after she was pregnant. The added complication is that much of the lawsuit revolves around the fact that the donor is Black, while she and her partner are White, and had chosen a White donor.
Jerry Mahoney’s “Mommy Man: How I Went from Mild-Mannered Geek to Gay Superdad,” is a wonderful addition to the growing genre of LGBT parenting memoirs, not only because of its sharp writing and smart humor, but because it shows us an aspect of LGBT parenting we haven’t seen in a book-length memoir before—two men pursuing parenthood through gestational surrogacy.
A new law in Washington, D.C. is drawing lesbian couples from other jurisdictions to give birth there — and a bill making its way through the California legislature could simplify the paperwork and clarify parenting arrangements for same-sex couples in that state.
Many people, LGBTQ and not, have used donor eggs, sperm, or embryos to create their families. I did. A new study by a researcher I have admired for years seeks to understand the experiences of these families — and if you’re part of one, she needs your help.
MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry had her second child on Valentine’s Day last week — surprising many viewers of her show because she wasn’t “visibly pregnant.” She gave birth to her first child in 2002, but had her uterus removed in 2008 after suffering from uterine fibroids. She credits “a dear friend and his husband,” who had their child by surrogacy, for suggesting that she do the same.
