Double Pride
This Pride Month, I am feeling a double sort of pride: Pride at being part of the LGBTQ community and pride in my son as he graduates from high school.
This Pride Month, I am feeling a double sort of pride: Pride at being part of the LGBTQ community and pride in my son as he graduates from high school.
My son is graduating from high school this year, which is making me reflect back to how our family started. Since today is Donor Conception Awareness Day, I thought I’d offer a refreshed version of our experience with reciprocal IVF (my egg; partner’s womb) in hopes of offering some insight or inspiration to others pursuing similar paths.
Today, my spouse Helen and I are celebrating our second anniversary in a pandemic and our 28th overall. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather quarantine with than you, dear—and that’s no April Fool’s joke.
Those who have met me, even briefly, know one thing about me: I’m small. I stand 5’0″ in my socks and I’m not too hefty. I’ve been an athlete all my life, though, and have almost always competed against opponents who are taller and heavier. That’s only one of the reasons why I don’t understand those who want to limit transgender girls’ participation in girls’ sports.
As Thanksgiving approaches this year, I am thankful for many things—and not only that I’ve finally learned to make a decent pie crust.
Isolating from a pandemic isn’t how I wanted my spouse Helen and me to spend our 27th anniversary. We usually go out to dinner and enjoy having someone else do the dishes. This year, we’re stuck at home, properly distancing ourselves from the rest of the world. Still, our weathering the pandemic together says more about our relationship than a fancy meal.
Gay Parent Magazine spoke with me recently about my family, my career, and the origins of Mombian—and the interview is in its latest issue, available now.
The end-of-year holiday season is hard for me now that my parents have passed. Thanksgiving had always been my Jewish family of origin’s time to gather. My brother and I have continued to celebrate Thanksgiving with our immediate families and his wife’s parents, but the absence of our parents makes the occasion bittersweet. I miss them, too, at Hanukkah, when we always lit a menorah and exchanged gifts. I’m finding comfort this year, however, in a new project to uncover and preserve our family history.
My family of origin always has our biggest gathering on Thanksgiving. My spouse Helen, our son, and I pretty much party from then until Helen’s birthday in early January, marking Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s along the way.
Last night, at Family Equality Council’s Night at the Pier, I was honored to receive the Hostetter-Habib Family Award, while Katie Couric was honored for her work on the National Geographic film Gender Revolution.