Many of us have had the joy/challenge of homeschooling our kids, at least in part, over the past few months. That’s why “homeschool,” a post from Magdalen Dale at her blog overallmagic, is my pick for a Post of the Week.
LGBTQ parenting news keeps on coming, even during a pandemic. Here are some of the stories from the U.S. and around the world that I haven’t covered elsewhere.
May 17 marks three key events in the history of civil rights. Can you name them?
Beckett Cypher, son of musician Melissa Etheridge and filmmaker Julie Cypher, has died at age 21.
Aimee Stephens, whose civil rights lawsuit was the first case involving transgender civil rights to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, died yesterday from kidney disease.
Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, the 2008 picture book about a girl worried that her favorite uncle will no longer have time for her after he marries his boyfriend, is coming out today in a bright new edition. The anthropomorphic guinea pigs are gone, replaced by human characters—and author Sarah Brannen was kind enough to answer some questions for Mombian readers about the changes.
The Trump Administration has a cruel sense of timing. This month, National Foster Care Month, they have stopped collecting data on the sexual orientation of youth in foster care and of foster and adoptive parents. The data is needed to make the right decisions and track outcomes for youth in care, advocates say. This comes after the administration issued a new rule on the first day of National Adoption Month last November, which allows taxpayer-funded foster care and adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ people and others.
Most of us have seen the New Yorker cartoon from 2011 that always seems to recirculate this time of year: A teacher leans over the desk of a child making a card that reads, “Happy Mothers’ Day.” The child looks up at the teacher and says, “I have two mommies. I know where the apostrophe goes.” It’s funny, of course, as it reminds the audience that yes, there are families with two moms (and kids who are really good at grammar). At the same time, though, I sometimes worry that the cartoon may reinforce the incorrect assumption which conflates all LGBTQ moms into two-mom units.
Let’s look at some more of the many LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books coming out in the next few weeks! Here are three that each revolve around children dealing with questions about same-sex parents.
Jacqueline Woodson on Monday won the Hans Christian Andersen Award, “the highest international distinction given to authors and illustrators of children’s books,” which should surprise exactly no one, as it was one of the few major awards in children’s literature this amazing author and poet—and a queer mom—had not yet won.
