Dec 28th, 2005
Online Magazine for Younger Kids of Queer Parents
Laura Matanah, publisher of Rainbow Rumpus has been working hard in the past year to launch the online magazine for young kids and their LGBT parents. An email today about the website’s accomplishments reminded me I need to alert my readers about this resource. The current request for submissions is about those moments when your family structure is noticed. The submission request includes a nod to “family-defining moments,” the title of one of the chapters in Families Like Mine. (The mention of my name on their site and my decision to mention their site is purely coincidental, although not surprising. The world of publicly out queer families is not all that big, as Kate Ranson-Walsh recently pointed out.)
Rainbow Rumpus’ posting of submissions could be a really eye-opening project for new parents and wanna-be parents to read, especially since it is usually the two-mommy or two-daddy couples who are in the most denial about the challenges their families will face in being acknowledged as valid families. They confuse not being ashamed of who they are with being immune to discrimination — but the two are not the same. Every queer family will get smacked with their first encounter of homophobia or ignorance at some point. Even the seasoned out-and-proud queer parent and author Ari Istar Lev recently reported her first significant experience with anti-LGBT family sentiment.
The trick is to be prepared for it but not let it paralyze you; striking a balance of awareness, sensibly positioned between denial and paranoia.