Last Friday, I posted that award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson, who also happens to be a queer mom of color, had been named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. She was inaugurated yesterday by the Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden. Watch the video, which includes a speech by Woodson in which she thanks her partner and their children, and a conversation between Woodson and Hayden.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made headlines by marching in Pride parades—but here are two ways Canadian provinces are supporting queer families (among others) through actual policies: Ontario now recognizes up to four co-parents, and Quebec will introduce discussion of different family types, including same-sex couples, to its mandatory sex education curriculum.
In one of my son’s favorite video games, an artificial intelligence system promises the player cake if she completes various challenges. As the player proceeds through the game, however, she finds graffiti claiming “The cake is a lie,” and it becomes clear that the AI is stringing her along with malicious intent. The Trump administration has similarly revealed the lie of its promised friendship—its “cake”—to the LGBTQ community. (Remember the image of then-candidate Trump holding a rainbow flag at a rally almost exactly a year ago?) Fittingly, the latest confirmation of the administration’s true intent revolves around actual cake.
Yesterday’s election saw big wins for queer candidates—including several who are also parents, and in two cases, grandparents.
Courts in Missouri and New York affirmed this week that nonbiological parents should be recognized as parents under the law—nice victories, but also a reminder that we need to apply this in our own lives, even in cases of divorce or separation.
A nonbiological mother is a legal parent to the child she and her same-sex spouse conceived through assisted reproduction, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled yesterday, in a ruling that emphasized the benefits such recognition has for children. The ruling could also have an impact on at least one more pending case.
Several court cases involving same-sex parents could be helped by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling—but the cases also underscore the obstacles we are still facing and suggest some needed actions for all of us to take.
In a major win for LGBTQ families, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday overturned an Arkansas Supreme Court ruling and said both parents in a same-sex couple have the right to be on their children’s birth certificates.
This wasn’t the Pride Month I was looking forward to. I hoped we would be celebrating gains built on marriage equality, not battling to stop religious-exemption laws that could exclude us from parenting and limit homes for children who need them. I hoped we would be celebrating a growing understanding of transgender people, not trying to stop the same kind of bathroom bills for which North Carolina has been widely criticized. I hoped we wouldn’t still have to fight for the right of both same-sex parents to be on our children’s birth certificates.
Yesterday, the Nebraska Supreme Court struck down the state’s ban on “homosexuals” becoming foster parents, meaning that gay men and lesbians can now be treated equally in foster care placements in all 50 states—maybe.
