Mamablogger365 - New Beginnings by Mindy Stokes

The word family has seen a transformation in the past couple of decades. At one time, it meant only those biologically related to you. In this day and age, it’s been expanded to include those with whom we have shared values or choose to spend much time with. For me, family represents those people who have become near and dear—those who’ve found their way into my heart in profound and deeply meaningful ways. This list includes my mother, grandmother, aunties, uncles, cousins, brother and dear friends. My nuclear family, those with whom I wake up every day, and who bring me joy, are Katie my partner of 13 years, and Soleil our vivacious five year old daughter.

Unfortunately, the concept of family has been hijacked by certain individuals and organizations in our society who wish to define what “family” is. Far too often, these individuals and organizations claim they have the Good Book and God on their side and that He is the ultimate authority, thus rendering them experts on a particular issue. The issue I speak of is marriage equality.

These religious folks assert they must protect the “family” from special interests and only their definition of “family” qualifies for this protection. They broadcast that marriage equality will bring mayhem to the traditional institution of marriage between one man and one woman. And that if same-sex couples are granted the civil right of marrying, then our nation’s morality is at stake and finally our children will suffer. According to them, the welfare of these children is at the center of this argument.

They are erroneous for three reasons...

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MamaBlogger365 - Why Marriage Equality is Essential to Healthy Families by Mindy Stokes

The election cycle is gearing up and already I'm experiencing the inevitable: anti-homosexual rhetoric. Politicians are working on getting elected and one of their favorite galvanizing issues is marriage equality. The reason: this subject gets the party base out to vote. The result: LGBT communities are used as pawns -- political footballs if you will. Let me explain why this is highly offensive and ultimately hurtful to me, a lesbian, my life partner, and our daughter, who happens to be five years old.

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MamaBlogger365 - Why Does Ursula Get a Bad Rap? by Mindy Stokes

My daughter will turn five in a couple of weeks and she wants to have a Barbie party. I told her that a party with an anatomically incorrect icon is never going to happen on my watch. So then she asked if she could have a Little Mermaid one. I conceded. Isn't Ariel better than Barbie? At least she can be a little sassy, right? She did disobey her father, King Triton, on occasion. This gives me hope.

Let me give you some context to my reasons for denying my beautiful daughter Barbie. I'm a lesbian and so is her Mama (I guess you figured that one out). We conceived Soleil using artificial insemination through a fertility clinic. My partner and I are both Caucasian, the donor African-American, thus Soleil's hair will never be long, blond or red. Instead she's got an amazing afro with curls strangers long for. I teach women's studies, so I'm a proud feminist (yahoo!) and I'm keenly aware of beauty ideals and eating disorders. And to top it all off, I don't appreciate Disney or Mattel making their way into my life using princesses, mermaids and unreasonably thin dolls with the ultimate message of patriarchy: what a girl looks like is more important than her mind and in Ariel's case, her voice.

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Support MamaBlogger365 and help the Museum of Motherhood secure a permanent home in 2011! Your tax-deductible donation in ANY amount will help us make our September POP-UP exhibit in NYC a permanent reality - visit our Members page to learn more.

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MamaBlogger365 - High Vibe -1, Homophobes - 0 by Shira Adler, Diva Mama

In high school I had a teacher who was a homophobe, albeit a nice one. I hadn’t been aware of this until one day during my senior year civics class when we were engaged in a model congress session. My teacher had proposed anti-gay legislation. I did what any self-respecting liberal young woman would do in that situation. I challenged his way of thinking, pointed out the statistics that proved gay couples who adopted or gave birth to children were more likely to raise heterosexuals and then asked him, did he know any children who were actually raised by a gay couple?

He replied, no.

“Actually..." read more

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