Between the horrible Florida court decision and Banned Books Week, I’ve been feeling a lot of angst this week. What better way to dispel it than a new video about peace by high-profile lesbian mom Melissa Etheridge, which she made with Pakistani musician Salman Ahmad? They created it for Search for Common Ground, a non-profit […]
I’m spitting nails over this one: A U.S. District Court in Florida rejected a lawsuit by a lesbian mom who had been kept apart from her partner who lay dying in a Florida hospital. The couple’s three children were kept from her as well. In February 2007, Janice Langbehn and Lisa Pond boarded an R
I first had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Brannen when her children’s book Uncle Bobby’s Wedding launched early last year. I wrote about the right wing’s first attack on the book, which involved shameless plagiarism of my earlier piece by ultra-conservative writer Brent Bozell III at Town Hall. I then followed the story as the
Continuing my posts in honor of Banned Books Week. This is a slightly updated version of a piece I wrote for Bay Windows during last year’s Banned Books Week. If you haven’t yet read it, try to guess which children’s book featuring rabbits was challenged in 1959 for promoting (gasp!) interracial marriage. And come back
President Barack Obama has proclaimed today Family Day. A minor holiday? Perhaps—but he breaks new ground by his inclusive definition of family.
Continuing my series of posts in honor of this year’s Banned Books Week, here’s a public service announcement about it from the American Library Association. It’s aimed at helping kids understand the meaning of the week, and why banning books is un-American.
It’s the start of Banned Books Week here in the U.S., “an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. . . . Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted
The House Education and Labor Committee heard testimony on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA). Openly gay Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) were among those who testified, as did Vandy Beth Glenn, who had been fired from her Georgia state legislative job when she announce she was transitioning. A coalition of grassroots groups
I’m judicious in my posting of press releases, especially about purely local events (otherwise, I’d do nothing but post press releases), but this one is in a major city and runs for several months, so I’m passing it along. I know nothing about the organization or their programs, but they have a good group of
Helen and I devote this episode to kids’ music, inspired by a free, live concert we attended. Will They Might Be Giants, now with their third kids’ album, become the Schoolhouse Rock for the next generation? Is an album of “songs for kids with two moms” going to capture our children’s attention or is it
