Dana Rudolph (founder and publisher of Mombian) writes on The Huffington Post about the need to reconsider Mother’s Day for a progressive cause.
Mother’s Day or Mothers’ Day? In our household, my partner and I celebrate the latter. Our son is too young yet to have any opinion on this holiday and its paternal counterpart, although I expect he’ll come up with a creative way to observe them as he grows older. Maybe he’ll fill the house with twice as many flowers on the second Sunday in May.
Maybe he’ll make the holiday last all weekend, bringing breakfast in bed to me on Saturday and my partner on Sunday. He could re-purpose Father’s Day for one of us, or use that to honor his grandfathers or his anonymous sperm donor. I’m pretty open to whatever he chooses, as long as part of it involves me and chocolates.
Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are varied celebrations in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) families, but the spirit–celebrating the love between one generation and the next–remains the same. I therefore decided to choose a day midway between the two, June 1, and create Blogging for LGBT Families Day, a time for bloggers of all sexual orientations and gender identities to come together and write in support of LGBT families. It honors both mothers and fathers equally, but also conveys that not all families fit the traditional structure of one mother and one father. June 1st is also the start of Gay Pride Month, making it doubly appropriate. Over 130 bloggers took part last year. They included lesbian moms, gay dads, adult children of LGBT parents, members of the transgender community, LGBT individuals without children, and straight allies. Countries represented included the United States as well as Australia, Canada, and the UK. Some bloggers told stories about their paths to parenthood, or tales about their children; some wrote about LGBT relatives or friends; others discussed current political events; and several spoke of why their faith compels them to support LGBT rights. Many affirmed that love was the defining characteristic of a family.
This year, the Family Pride Coalition is sponsoring the event with me. They are the national non-profit committed to securing family equality for all loving families, and among other things, the force behind the peaceful visibility of LGBT families at the White House Egg Roll each spring.
Any blogger supportive of LGBT families is welcome to participate, whether they are LGBT or not, parents or not. Sharing our stories and opinions with each other and the world helps us realize our similarities and respect our differences. It gives strength to the LGBT community and our allies and helps others understand us. It shows that anti-LGBT legislation affects real families.
To join in, bloggers should write relevant posts on or before June 1, and notify me through my Mombian blog. The choice of subject is up to individual writers. I will showcase the full list of participants at Mombian on June 1. Visit the site for more details or to download promotional banners.
I hope many of you will contribute posts, and all will come to read.