personal political

child rights

The Same Sex Miscellaneous Bill was passed on Tuesday night in the NSW state parliament. It reformed 57 Acts and made important changes to legislation in relation to lesbian mothers and their children. As a result of this act, co-parent can be added to Olle's birth certificate and her name can be added as his parent whenever he fills out official forms throughout his lifetime, including passport forms. This makes us all very happy!

 

Over the fold is the text of the speech made during the parliamentary debate by (non-biological) lesbian mother Penny Sharpe who is a member of the Upper House.

conference

No Gay Parents at Kindy: Heterosexism, childhood innocence and a pedagogy of inclusion

Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater 5: Social Justice in Early Childhood conference, with Associate Professor Kerry Robinson (University of Western Sydney).

Sydney, April 12, 2008.

ivf extension

Over a decade after this right was won by those of us in NSW, it looks like Victoria will allow lesbians to have access to IVF. This makes me very happy on behalf of the women who are having the sorts of fertility problems I experienced. In return, I wish the NSW government would adopt the recommendation of the Vic Law Reform Commission that two women's names can be on a birth certificate, under "parent'. At the moment, Olle officially only has one parent, which is nonsense.

a tale of two embryos

When I first heard that a legal case had started in which a lesbian couple were suing their IVF doctor for transferring two embryos instead of one, resulting in twins, my heart sank. Apparently this case dominated talkback radio on Wednesday, then on Thursday the usual rightwing commentators ranted against it in the press. Last night, however, the women argued back and today there are some more measured comments appearing.

I find cases like this quite confronting - my immediate response was that I'd have loved to be in their situation and ended up with two children. That I was unable too have a second child is an underlying source of sadness for me. But the more I think about it and the more I post on the discussion about it over at LP, the more I have to accept that I'm not them - it's a straightforward claim of medical mispractice, nothing to do with me or any of the outraged moralists who are filling the airwaves.

foster mum

I'm sure I've seen references in the media to Jodie Foster as a "single mother", though I couldn't say how recent those were. But it seems her two sons are not just hers - there has been a coming out of sorts, ie. her two sons revealed as having two mothers.

insight

On Saturday morning I had an appointment at the osteopath's - in the waiting room was a copy of the Sydney Morning Herald and on the top banner was a photo of a face with the subhead I'm not gay but my four mums are. It said this was in the Insight section but there was no page number. I turned to the index on page 2 - no Insight section listed. I looked through all the vast bulk of the weekend paper and couldn't find Insight. Then I had to go in to my appointment.

the invisible lesbian mothers

Dick Cheney’s daughter Mary has given birth to a son. The baby is shown here with his grandparents. Have you ever seen an official new-baby photo which totally excludes the parents? Imagine if the latest Danish princess had been presented to the world in one photo with the queen and king of Denmark. It wouldn’t have happened — it didn’t happen. It’s only happened in this case because the parents are a lesbian couple.

At least Dick looks genuinely happy.

PS: a funny take on it.

PPS: Over at Larvatus Prodeo, where I cross-posted this, a commenter pointed out that the Cheneys had had the same style of photo taken with their other grandsons. Which somewhat deflates my argument, though they also have form in not sharing a stage with their lesbian daughter at the Republican Convention of 2004.

offspring

The latest Gay and Lesbian Issues in Psychology Review looks at lesbian mothers and gay fathers.

the other mother

The Other Mother is one of my favourite blogs (and a blog with a neat focus - something I hanker after).
This is an article about Robyn, who is the other mother.

they write you up

A few days ago I came across this article by a young woman whose mother had been a television comedy writer, basing her scripts on their own family life.

As it happened, I'd just been thinking about the related issue of writing about children in blogs.