Jennifer Lopez is developing a TV series for ABC Family about two lesbian moms, Deadline reports. Will the hour-long drama give us an authentic (albeit fictionalized) portrayal of a lesbian-headed family? Will it stay away from tired clichés, like “the wacky search for sperm”? Will J.Lo sing and dance about baby strollers?
A new California bill would allow a child to have more than two legal parents, including two lesbian moms and their sperm donor. This may be new for the U.S., but one Canadian province is already leading here.
Kirsten of I Have Two Mommies gets the Post of the Week spot for her “Go the $%*! to Sleep!” post about—well, if you’ve had an infant, you know. I also liked her post for the small lesbian-specific detail, however.
Two gay dads in Virginia wanted to take their son swimming during the summer, so they signed up for a family membership at the Roanoke Athletic Club. The club initially granted the membership, then denied it upon realizing the dads were gay. This is only one of several disturbing recent actions allegedly taken by the club, which is owned by regional medical provider Carilion Clinic.
Five million babies around the world have now been born through in vitro fertilization (IVF), reported experts at a European conference this week. Not all of us lesbians create our families that way, of course (the technique is more often used by straight couples having trouble conceiving)—but since my spouse and I did (my egg, her womb), I thought it was worth a mention.
I’ve long said that if the right-wing really wants to put an end to gay sex, they should be encouraging us to become parents. Now, there’s proof.
I was amused and touched by the summer travel wisdom over at Are You the Babysitter?, making her “Family Discoveries” my Post of the Week.
Two senior Defense Department officials spoke at the Department’s first-ever Pride month event. One noted the positive impact of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal on the children of gay servicemembers—but the other observed that there are still obstacles to full equality for them.
I’m passing along this information about the Gender Spectrum Family Conference, a yearly gathering for gender nonconforming children, teens, and their families. I’m not involved in the organization myself, but I’ve heard many good things about it.
Books matter. “Children feel unimportant and invisible when they do not see representations of their lives and families in books,” asserts librarian Jamie Campbell Naidoo. He knows this firsthand. Growing up in the Bible Belt in the early 1980s, he says, there were no books that “mirrored my life and the lives of other queer children.” If there had been, he says, he “I would not have felt so alienated and ashamed of being different.” His classmates, too, might have understood his queerness was not strange. Such books, however, were not to be found.
Fast forward to today and Dr. Naidoo, now an assistant professor of library and information studies at the University of Alabama, has written a book of his own to help guide librarians, parents, teachers, and others seeking LGBT-inclusive titles.
