This past weekend, at the Mythic Championship professional tournament of the fantasy-themed card game Magic the Gathering (which boasts a $500,000 prize pool), a transgender, nonbinary player won first place for the first time in history. I’ve been playing Magic myself with my son for some months now, so even though my skills are nowhere near tournament level, I know enough to be thoroughly impressed. You should be, too.
People and families come in many forms, as any LGBTQ person can attest. Now, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) is using that concept to improve upon its already LGBTQ-inclusive employee benefits. The FORTUNE 100 company, which has approximately 7,500 employees around the country, is rolling out new benefits around leave, gender affirmation, family creation, and more that empower all employees and demonstrate a deep understanding of LGBTQ people’s lives.
During tonight’s Academy Awards, Samsung aired a commercial that includes two women, one of whom is pregnant, lying in bed viewing an ultrasound on their phone. Watch it here.
A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled yesterday that the son of two married men, one a U.S. citizen and one an Israeli citizen, must be recognized as a U.S. citizen like his twin brother. But the ruling does not change a State Department policy that will allow continued discrimination against same-sex couples and their children.
It’s time for another roundup! Here’s what’s happening that I haven’t yet covered during this shortest of months.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) yesterday signed a bill expanding the state’s paid family leave law in a number of ways—notably, by expanding the definition of “family” under the law to include chosen families and by expanding the definition of “parent” to include foster parents and those who become parents via gestational surrogacy.
Sharon Mattes, known as Sharon Bottoms when she fought to overcome anti-LGBTQ bias in a legal battle for custody of her son in the 1990s—a headline case for queer parents—has died at age 48.
Valentine’s Day may not be a specifically LGBTQ holiday like Pride or National Coming Out Day, but it has long felt to me like a very queer time of year. And while it has become somewhat clichéd to say that “love makes a family,” the sentiment remains absolutely true. Love does more than that, however.
Kazoo, an award-winning and queer-inclusive magazine for girls, founded by a lesbian mom, has been nominated for the most prestigious award given by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME).
A sweet new board book for toddlers explores the different colors of the LGBTQ Pride flag—and author Robin Stevenson has shared with Mombian readers her thoughts on writing it.
