Sphen, a gentoo penguin who rose to worldwide fame with his same-sex mate Magic after they incubated eggs and raised two chicks together, died this month at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium. When Magic saw Sphen’s body, “He immediately started singing, which was beautifully reciprocated by the colony,” the aquarium said.
Like many of us, I have been saddened and angered by the death of 16-year-old nonbinary transgender student Nex Benedict after an assault at school. Nex’s death is a tragedy—and Nex is not the only trans young person to have died too soon.
LGBTQ and bisexual activist Abilly S. Jones-Hennin, a father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, died last Friday at the age of 81.
Only a chance change of job kept me from being at the World Trade Center site on September 11, 2001. Shortly afterward, my spouse and I began to talk seriously about having a child.
A California shop owner, community leader, and mother of nine children was killed Friday by a man who objected to her flying a Pride flag outside her clothing store and then shot her.
Minnie Bruce Pratt, an acclaimed poet, essayist, and activist who wrote, among other things, about losing custody of her children when she came out as a lesbian, died on July 4 of an aggressive brain tumor at age 76.
Dr. Cheri A. Pies, whose 1985 book, Considering Parenthood: A Workbook for Lesbians, helped innumerable queer women become parents during the “gayby boom” of the 1980s, died from cancer on July 4 at the age of 73. If you don’t know her name yet, you should; in many ways, all of us queer parents who came after have benefited from her work, whether we know it or not.
Dr. Susan Love, one of the world’s foremost breast cancer researchers and a visionary leader in breast cancer advocacy, died at age 75 on July 2, 2023. In 1993, Love and her partner (later wife) were also the first same-sex parents in Massachusetts to both be named legal parents of their child, a case later cited in support of the state’s landmark marriage equality ruling.
Another school shooting. Children and adults dead. The epidemic of gun violence continues. Here again are some resources on talking with children about shootings, something no parent should need, but that too many of us sadly do.
Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old transgender girl in the U.K., was murdered last Saturday. Her death should remind us of the dire need to protect trans youth and all trans lives.
