What can bathroom signs tell us about gender, sex, and society? Plenty, according to this great article by Marissa at The Society Pages, a multidisciplinary social science project organized by the University of Minnesota’s sociology department. Marissa has gathered an extensive, thought-provoking, and occasionally hilarious collection of bathroom signs from around the world. (A few […]
I was recently asked by a mainstream journalist: “Are you worried about providing male role models for your son?”
I answered, as I always do to the question, “No.” It’s not that I don’t want him to have male role models; it’s just that I’m not worried about it. I think that very often, when the media asks that question, they are ignoring the realities not only of same-sex and single parents’ lives, but also of children’s lives in general.
(Originally published as my Mombian newspaper column.) The two eight-year-old girls said that meeting each other was like a dream come true. They both had similar interests—gymnastics, dance, singing, and songwriting—and similar styles in hair and clothing. Not only that, but for each of them, it was the first time they had met another child
I’ve been delighted and fascinated by your great responses to yesterday’s unscientific survey on what our kids call us—so much so, that I’m going to encourage readers again to participate, if you haven’t already. (Please click the link to submit your answers to the spreadsheet; don’t just leave a comment.) So far, we’ve got lots
Gender Spectrum, an organization that provides “education, training and support to help create a gender sensitive and inclusive environment for all children and teens,” is hosting their annual Gender Spectrum Family Conference at the end of the month. I’ve never been, myself, but I’ve heard good things about it. (Please leave a comment if you’ve attended,
Over at Viva la Feminista, Veronica has a great post about why she dislikes the term “Mr. Mom” and when someone asks her husband if he is “babysitting” the kids. She writes, “When he is caring for his daughter, he is her father, not a babysitter and certainly not a male version of me.” Amen
Here’s another must-read for your coffee break as you’re getting back to work after the holiday: Sarah Hoffman’s excellent piece for Salon, “My son, the pink boy,” in which she argues that her son is not “confused,” but Dr. Phil is. She concludes: As social acceptance of gay people grows, it’s time to look critically
Sometimes, in our efforts to correct one instance of intolerance, we forget others. Two weeks ago, a Miami-Dade judge declared Florida’s anti-gay adoption law unconstitutional and allowed Vanessa Alenier to adopt the one-year-old she and her partner Melanie Leon have been fostering. The ultra-conservative Orlando’s Florida Family Policy Council (FPC) sent out an alert to
As promised, here is another in my series of quotes from Who’s Your Daddy? And Other Writings on Queer Parenting. I’ll be running them for a couple of weeks courtesy of the book’s editor, Rachel Epstein. I’m choosing the quotes I feel are most intriguing and thought provoking; I don’t always agree with the sentiments,
What a day. My son is out of school for the summer, so I spent most of my time at the playground with him and a friend, watching them go up and down on the swings. Recent national LGBT political news has been rather like that, too. It has gone something like this: President Obama
