Bunchland

Meri Perra blogs about the challenges she and her partner face in trying to raise their girls with feminist values

It all started over a few glasses of wine at an engagement party this fall. My dear friend, excited about her upcoming nuptials, announced she wanted my kids to be flower girls at her wedding. I was super-touched. Including the kids in the wedding reinforced our feelings of being a chosen family. When my friend said that our other friend’s boys were to be ring bearers, everything felt good and complete. Mostly.

The thing is, I’m still the dyke amongst these beautiful straight women friends, and at times, I can’t help myself. After some gentle, feminist nudging, the happy couple agreed to have four “flower kids” at their wedding instead.

“Why assign gender roles to preschoolers?”  I said.  Read more...

Meri Perra blogs about the challenges she and her partner face in trying to raise their girls with feminist values

We made the leap and nabbed a cargo bike off of Craigslist last month, a doozie of a vehicle that fits up to four kids, or as the man we bought her from claimed, two adults and one big dog, or as Sarah Elton wrote in a Grid article last summer, a barbecue.

Whatever you put in them, cargo bikes are some kind of awesome. A freedom ride that lets to cart your kids or your junk (or both) around town, and as the above-mentioned Elton article points out, gives a big, revolutionary stick-it finger to our city’s war on bikes.  Read more...

We asked some of our favourite LGBTQ parents what they thought about Obama’s statement

Dana Rudolph, a.k.a. Mombian

President Obama, by stating that he supports my family’s right to equality, has given me hope that my son may grow up in a country where he is not disadvantaged because of anti-gay laws and attitudes. We’re still a long way from that–no laws have changed since he spoke–but I am optimistic that the President has set an example for others to follow. I am also delighted that he mentioned the positive influence of his daughters, who have friends with same-sex parents, and who accept them and their families as inherently equal. I believe many young people feel as they do, and that bodes well for the future.

Billy Hossack, Toronto dad  Read more...

Meri Perra’s sure to have something good for us!

Meri Perra’s moving into some new digs this weekend, so we’re sure to hear a good story about it next week. You may recall that Meri and her family live in pretty close quarters, so we’re glad they’re getting a bit more space. Anyone else moving this spring?

We’re wondering if Meri took a gander at Stephanie Potter’s moving with kids tips.

On the lesbian mom news front, some good news and some bad. First the good: Zach Wahls has a book! My Two Moms: Lessons of Love, Strength and What Makes a Family came out yesterday. And why we need to keep talking about queer parenting issues: the Boy Scouts booted out a lesbian den mother, but she’s fighting back and she’s got GLAAD on her side.

Photo by The Muuj via Flickr

Meri Perra blogs about the challenges she and her partner face in trying to raise their girls with feminist values

I found a new queer parenting column on Chicago’s LGBT news site, the Windy City Media Group by Roi Ann Phillips, a self-identified suburban, lesbian soccer mom, who debuted her column with the following question:

“What about our life is quintessentially gay?” she writes, hitting home with:
“I haven’t been an active part of the public LGBT movement in nearly eight years.”

Relate much? I do. Much of my first pregnancy was spent being a union local president, and freaking out about becoming a mom, both of which caused me to drop out of the queer scene a good nine months before our first daughter was born. I’ve been out of it nearly six years.  Read more...

We asked our bloggers what their plans are this weekend

Are we all looking forward to big family get-togethers this weekend? Just as Easter Bunny tactics vary from house to house, so do the traditions and celebrations. We asked the Bunch crew about their holiday plans and traditions.

“Just the usual: Easter egg hunt in the backyard and a big Sunday dinner…” — Beth Blenz-Clucas

“Two words: Take-out. Last year after doing nothing at Easter except for an egg-hunt in our living room, I got all nostalgic for Easters past (I’m half German, so Easters are, like, a half-big deal to me). I called my sister and blurted out we would host Easter get togethers at our place, starting next year, from now on. (She’d already taken on hosting Christmas, so really the ball was in my court.)  Read more...

Meri Perra blogs about the challenges she and her partner face in trying to raise their girls with feminist values

Call it a throwback to the anti-porn debates of lore, when some feminists and conservative Christians actually agreed with each other on an issue. (If feminists ever had a warning that maybe they should re-think their stance on something…)

Now, an international beauty pageant and North America’s 35-year running feminist music festival happen to agree with each other also. The agreement: that trans women are not “real women”, or “natural women” or however else you want to mask-up some fairly blatant transphobic nonsense.

Let’s start with the story of Jenna Talackova, Canada’s Miss Universe finalist who was kicked out of the competition after certain groups pressured the corporation to let her go, or because she does indeed break the Miss Universe rules. Either way, the 23-year old Talackova got booted out of Miss Universe because she is trans, and over 40,000 people, including yours truly, have signed a Change.org petition telling Miss Universe to get their heads out of you-know-where and bring Talackova back, because, come on.  Read more...