LGBT
Parenting |
For All Parents
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NEW: The No
Name-Calling Week Project, March 1-5. Organized by the Gay,
Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Simon & Schuster
Children's Publishing.
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Online bookstores
Amazon Bookstore
Cooperative (the original Amazon bookstore!)
Boadecia’s
Books
Beyond the
Closet
Calamus Books
A Different Light
Outlooks Outbooks
(Canadian)
Women
and Children First
amazon.com
barnesandnoble.com
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Parenting Guides
- The
Queer Parent’s Primer: A Lesbian
and Gay Families’ Guide to Navigating Through a Straight World
by
Stephanie A. Brill (Oakland, Ca.: New Harbinger Publications, 2001)
- This guide is especially helpful in discussing family
structures, gender awareness, dealing with child care and schools, and
children’s emotional support.
- Lesbian
and Gay Parenting Handbook: Creating
and Raising Our Families by April Martin (New York:
Perennial,
1993)
- A very personal guide that includes stories from the
author’s experience and first-person accounts from people she met and
interviewed.
- Gay Parents,
Straight
Schools by Virginia Casper, Stephen B. Schultz, and Louise
Derman-Sparks (New York: Teacher's
College Press, 1999)
- A more theoretical guide (complete with index) useful for
those who wish to engage deeply with the issues of gay parents and
their relationships with their children’s schools.
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Stories
- Lesbian
and Gay Families Speak Out by Jane Levy Drucker (New
York: Perseus Publishing, 2001)
- Stories from over two dozen gay or lesbian-parented
familes.
- Love
Makes a Family: Portraits of
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Parents and Their Families
by Peggy Gillespie (Amherst, Ma.: University of Massachusetts Press,
1999)
- A beautiful book of photographs of and stories about LGBT
families.
- All
the Ways Home: Parenting and
Children in Lesbian and Gay Communities by Cindy Rizzo et
al. (Norwich, Vt.: New
Victoria
Publishers, 1995)
- An anthology of short fiction.
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Legal
Guides
- A Legal
Guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples by Hayden Curry, Denis
Clifford and Frederick Hertz (Berkeley, Ca.: Nolo Press,
2002
11th ed.)
- A guide to the law for LGBT families, including partnership
and child-
rearing issues, published by Nolo Press, which is devoted to providing
legal information to non-lawyers on a broad range of issues.
Online
bookstores
- Human Rights
Campaign Foundation: Family Net
- A national LGBT-focused advocacy group.
- Lambda Legal Defense
and Education
- The national LGBT legal defense group.
- Protecting
Families Standards for Child Custody in Same-sex Relationships
- One of Lambda Legal's comprehensive and useful publications.
- NCLR Family Law Project Publications
- Links to excellent fact sheets and overviews of the law as
regards all LGBT families, marriage and civil union, adoption, and
more, published by the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
- nolo.com
- The mottoes on Nolo’s Web site are “Law for All” and
“putting the law into plain English.” It’s a great place to start for
information on a variety of topics, with pages such as:
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Magazines
- And
Baby Magazine
- A beautifully-designed bimonthly magazine for gay parents,
founded in
2001.
- Gay Parent Magazine
- A bimonthly magazine focusing on personal stories which
celebrated its
fifth anniversary in 2003.
- In the Family Magazine
- Published quarterly, more about relationships than
specifically about
parenting.
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Web sites
- 2 Moms 2 Dads
- Archived articles about gay parents, shared answers to
“tough questions” and an attorney directory from the designer of a baby
book for children of gay parents, also sold on the site.
- Alternative
Family
- This site is an information portal for nontraditional
families of all stripes, including LGBT-headed and blended families and
those with adopted children, and non-intimate co-parents. Includes a
great many links and legal info.
- Alternative Family
Institute
- AFI is a not-for-profit agency serving LGBT families in the
San Francisco Bay area.
- Family Pride Coalition
- News, issues, and advocacy for families of LGBT parents.
- thegaybyboom.com
- Online shopping site for gay parents that includes a very
useful resource network to help people find sperm banks, fertility
specialists, obstetricians, attorneys, surrogacy resources, etc.
- Gay Family
Options
- A classified ad site where potential parenting partners
(surrogates, sperm donors, etc.) can find one another.
- Lesbian
and Gay Parenting
- Musings on parenting by a therapist/lesbian mother.
- PlanetOut
/ Families / Parenting
- Articles on family planning, legalities, and kids’ issues.
- Proud Parenting
- News items on family life, adoption, single parenting,
surrogacy, and other issues.
- We
2 Have Parental Rights: Access to Our Children
- Links to stories, legal resources, and a grouplist for
parents dealing with parental access issues.
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contact
the Webmaster
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Resources
for Kids (and Adult Children)
- Children of Lesbians and
Gays Everywhere (COLAGE)
- A national organization which sponsors an annual Family
Week event, a pen pal program, and even a scholarship. The Web site has
info and activities for kids of LGBT people.
- Families Like
Mine
- This Web site for older teens and adults includes archived
"Families Like Mine" newspaper columns, FAQs, and a place to sign up
for an e-mail newsletter.
Books for children
These are a few good books for young
children of LGBT parents, but there are many more out there. To buy one
of these or browse for others, see the list of online
bookstores.
- Heather
Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman (Los Angeles:
Alyson Publications, 1990)
- Daddy’s
Roommate by Michael Willhoite (Los Angeles: Alyson
Publications, 1991)
- Two of the first books for young children of gay parents –
both
are classics.
- How
My Family Came to Be: Daddy, Papa and Me by Andrew R.
Aldrich
(Oakland, Ca.: New
Family Press, 2003)
- A book about an interracial adoptive gay-headed family.
- ABC: A Family
Alphabet
Book by Bobbie Combs, Desiree Keane, and Brian Rappa
(Ridley
Park, PA: Two Lives Publishing, 2001)
- 123: A Family
Counting
Book by Bobbie Combs and Danamarie Hosler (Ridley
Park, PA: Two Lives Publishing, 2001)
- Counting and alphabet books that subtly portray everyday
scenes in the lives of children with same-sex parents.
Books for Teens and
Adults
- Dress
Codes: A Tale of Three Girlhoods - My Mother’s, My Father’s and Mine
by Noelle Howey (New York: Picador, 2002)
- A memoir by the daughter of a closeted cross-dressing –
and
later openly transsexual – father.
- Families Like
Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It Is
by Abigail Garner (New York: HarperCollins, to be published in 2004)
- Forthcoming book from the creator of famileslikemine.org.
- Out of the
Ordinary:
Essays on Growing Up
with Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Parents edited by
Noelle
Howey and Ellen Samuels (New York: St.
Martin’s Griffin, 2000)
- A collection of essays, some heartbreaking, some joyful,
by
adult children of LGBT parents.
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Updated February 27, 2004 |