Last December, I was at the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department tree-lighting ceremony in front of McLaren Lodge in Golden Gate Park. I was there to video my daughter and the theatre company of which she’s a member. Before they went on, however, there was another group — a family of singers. There was the mom and dad, of course, and six or seven kids, and they were performing Christmas carols. They were a regular Von Trapp family.
(more…)At the end of 2016, I wrote about the election of Donald Trump to the office of President of the United States and how to talk to my kids about it. I made some predictions about the effects of a Trump presidency, all of which came true. (Don’t congratulate me too hard; they were all quite obvious.) Even as he tweeted about Pride Month, the Orange Menace was rolling back protections for the LGBTQ+ community.
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Nathan Lane and the late Robin Williams are two of the funniest people ever to have graced this planet. Put them together in a movie and you’re pretty much guaranteed outrageous hilarity. That’s what happened in The Birdcage, a remake of the french farce La Cage aux Folles. In it, Lane and Williams are a gay couple who own a drag club in Miami, Florida where Lane is the star performer. They are also the parents of college student Val who has fallen in love with fellow student Barbara. The problem? Barbara’s father is an ultra-conservative, republican Senator, played by Gene Hackman. Of course, Barbara’s parents want to meet their potential in-laws before consenting to and announcing the engagement.
To avoid friction, Val asks his fathers to play it straight when the Senator and his family come to visit and the laughs are pretty much non-stop for the rest of the film.
A while back, I ran into a fellow parent at the grocery store. Her youngest and my oldest are in the same grade and had been in the same schools since kindergarten. We hadn’t seen each other in a while, now that our kids are in high school. I was pleased to see her again and we stopped to chat. Our kids weren’t ever especially close, but our elementary school community was a close-knit one and we had gotten to know each other reasonably well.
She asked about Jared and I told her how well he’s adjusting and about his joining the robotics team and so on. And then, I wanted to ask about her kid.
Shortly after the Orlando massacre, my family and I were headed for a local shopping mall and, as we often do, were discussing recent events on the way. We arrived and parked and proceeded to get out of our minivan in the parking lot near a chain department store. The area is not as upscale as some other parts of the Bay Area and the store is known more for lower prices than for its appeal to educated professionals. In short, while still relatively liberal (it was, after all, still the San Francisco Bay Area), it was an area where one might run into a homophobe.
Getting out of the car and walking through the parking lot, I continued talking loudly about the terrorist attack at the Pulse nightclub in Florida and its effect on the LGBTQ community. My oldest began trying to get me to quiet down and stop talking about it. He said that one day, I would end up getting shot if I kept talking that way. He was worried that some homophobic terrorist would take offense at what I was saying and respond with lethal force.
Ever since having kids, I’ve been a fan of Old Navy. They have good children’s clothes at affordable prices — a big help when you have three active kids who are continuously outgrowing and wearing out their clothes. But that’s not the only reason I shop at Old Navy, especially this time of year.
Recently, we were on holiday and found ourselves in need of some new pants (sans holes) for Ezra, my youngest, as well as a couple other small items. The only viable option we had available was Wal-Mart. Normally, I don’t shop at the retail giant because I have some serious issues with the way they run their business, but sometimes, evil becomes a necessary evil.
Dear Jim Bob and Michelle:
![By Jim Bob Duggar (Email from Jim Bob Duggar) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AJim_Bob_%26_Michelle_Duggar.jpg)
By Jim Bob Duggar [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Every parent must decide for themselves what they believe is the best way to raise their children. Considerations include public school versus private school versus homeschooling, attending church services versus eschewing religion, and, on an even more basic level, are kids better off as only children or do they do better with siblings.
Guest Post by Sara Sinasohn, age 10
LGBT? What’s wrong with it? It’s just a new type of community. It is the same thing as regular marriage, but just with two of the same gender. I don’t get it. As I said, what’s wrong with that?
It’s sad to think that people think of a couple as wrong just because they are of the same gender as each other. It’s just what we call love. It’s the same as saying it’s not right to get married if one person has darker skin than the other. If only people could understand that no matter what a couple looks like, just as long as they love each other it’s okay.
This post is part of Blogging for LGBTQ Families Day 2015.
If you’re a parent, you’ve undoubtedly heard plenty of stories of kids coming out to their parents that they are gay or lesbian. Some of them have been amusing, others endearing, and some, unfortunately, have been heartbreaking. Parents have responded with humour, with understanding, and with fear and loathing. Some parents have gone so far as to disown their children and kick them out of the house. That won’t happen in my house, but I’ll tell you that there also won’t be any “coming out” either.
A few weeks ago, my daughter came home with a list of topics and an assignment to do some sort of project about something related to San Francisco history. She had been instructed to pick one that her parents knew about so she could get help with it. I scanned the list of possible subjects and spotted The Gay Rights Movement. That was a no-brainer. I grew up in San Francisco and remember the assassination of Harvey Milk as if it were yesterday. I spent a lot of time — for a straight kid with straight parents — in the Castro because it was close to where I had rehearsals and not too far from the Opera House. It was a neat place to hang out on the way home. So, it seemed obvious which topic would be best. After all, what do I know about cable cars?
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