Today we went on a little outing to the New York State Museum with Lambda Family Circle.  Lambda Family Circle is our local GLBT parents group and the museum trip today was part of a series of monthly play groups.  We only met one other family there, a woman and her son.

We quickly moved through the Adirondacks exhibit because D could see a Mammoth all the way across the length of the museum and we just had to go there.  From there we moved to an exhibit on “invasive species”, this was a new exhibit and of particular interest to me.  In college I took many ecology, wildlife biology and environmental courses.  It was once a dream of mine to work in wildlife biology, but I was sidetracked by the idea of teaching school only to discover after awhile that I did not have the temperament for teaching.  From there I somehow ended up working in a clinical laboratory.  The exhibit showed a large number of non-native species that have invaded various habitats in New York State, I was not even aware that many of the organisms shown there were not native species. There was a special area where the kids could view small things like seeds and zebra mussels through a digital microscope.  This was a big hit with D.

After this area we made it to the New York City exhibit which takes up nearly half of the museum.  The picture of D is from the inside of an actual 1950’s era subway car.  The straps became an impromptu playground for a few minutes.  The museum now contains an extensive exhibit on 9/11, including pictures and video of the World Trade Center towers crumbling down and the planes crashing into the toweres.  Of course this became the source of a stream of questions from a certain 5 year old.  “Why did the planes crash into the towers?” “How come the towers fell down?” “What happened to the people in the towers?” and “Why would someone crash planes into towers?”  All very troubling and difficult questions to answer and they somehow caught me off guard.  I’ve had an easier time telling him where babies come from.  From here we decided it was time to go home.

Here is some GLBT family news I’ve gathered from around the web this week:

1. Visit the Family Equality Council Website and Declare Your Family Equal. Check out this video made by the Family Equality Council. Have You Declared Your Family Equal?

2. Tomorrow, November 15, 2008 is a National Day of Protest.  Join The Impact - Protest Prop 8 is organizing action all across the country.  Check out the website to find a protest near you.

3. Here is a bit of local news for us here in New York from the Albany Times Union about gay couples traveling to Canada and elsewhere to get married.  The story highlights Nora Yates and her partner Erika Lewis who traveled to Niagara Falls, Canada to get married.  Nora is the Executive Director of the Capital District Gay and Lesbian Communilty Council.

4. Check out Atticus Circle a group of straight American who are fighting for gay rights and marriage equality.

5. Another group, Mormons Stole Our Rights is looking the strip the Mormon Church of it’s tax exempt status for using it’s money to influence the Prop 8 ballot measure in California.

6. In a post titled Somethings Afoot at Daddy, Papa and Me, Trey discusses a sense that something has changed in the response of the gay community to the recent ballot losses. Is there a new activism emerging in the gay community?

This one seems different, more intense, deeper and broader. People I know who have never been ‘activists’ are now, people I know who have been ‘activists’ (from people like me who have been episodic, sometimes accidental activists to full-time activists) seem to have a deeper resolve. It’s only been just over a week, but somethings changed.

7. Guy Dads discuss their reactions to the recent elections, both the good and the bad.

8. Steve at The Hygiene Chronicles expresses his own reactions to the election with a letter to President-Elect Obama and includes a very cute video of his son.

9. Here are some more reactions to the elections; a post titled The Things We Tell Our Children from The Daddy Diaries, Days of the Dragon gives us Post Election Redux, a response to Prop 8 from Family of Choice, and Dana over at Mombian writes about LGBT Parents: The Forgotten Voices of Prop 8.

10. And finally, here is a look back to our own reaction to the elections here at Green Dads, America, Get Over Yourself.

We’re having a contest to giveaway 5 copies of these two books courtesy of the Hachette Book Group at our other site, Book Dads.  Read a description of the books and the contest rules here.

One evening this past week we went to D’s Montessori school for what they call Parent/Child Night.  It is supposed to be a night for children to show their parents what they have been working on in school.  He is a third year primary student, which is equivalent to Kindergarten in other schools.  So he has now been in this classroom with the same teachers for two full years and is part way into the third.

We were a little ambivalent about going.  You see, we went the first two years and it did not go well.  The first two years we went (at 3 and 4 years old) his behavior was erratic and  hyperactive, he bounced around the room trying to get in the way of what his friends were doing and didn’t show us his work at all. It had been a long day for him and we could tell he was tired and acting out for our benefit.  His teachers said, “he doesn’t act like this at all in class”.  Of course, we don’t believe that at all because this is exactly how he acts with us most of the time.

Remarkably, this time he was a little more focused.  Here he is showing me his journal.  He has to trace letters in the journal, written there by his teacher, each page is a sentence or paragraph he has recited to the teacher and he draws a picture on the opposite page.  The pictures are beginning to have an attempt at form, rather than just scribbling.  He is not reading the words yet and is having difficulty with holding the pencil and his fine motor skills.  He did read us a small book (he had it memorized actually) but I was still amazed at that.  He is very creative at making up stories, but behind a little compared to other kids in the class on reading and writing.  We are going to get an evaluation so that we can get some extra reading help and help for his fine motor skills.

by Brian Frank

On the streets, online and in the broadcast media, Americans are proudly - and loudly - proclaiming that, last night’s election was an historic event that marks a turning point for our great country.

Yes, America is now filled with a new hope.  That is, unless you’re gay.

America is now filled with a new pride … unless you’re gay.

America is now filled with a new optimism … unless you’re gay.

Tuesday night heralded the start of a bright, new dawn for our nation and all its citizens … except the gay ones.  Because last night, Arizona banned gay marriage.  Florida has now banned both gay marriage and civil unions.  As of this writing, California appears to have not only banned gay marriage but removed the right of marriage from gay couples who were already married.  And Arkansas, where gay marriage is already illegal, has now banned gays not only from adopting but also from fostering children.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled to see the end of the Bush Administration and its policies.  The Congress is now in Democratic hands as well, as well as the Senate in my home state of New York.  And I’m just as pleased to see that states like Virginia have finally gone from Red to Blue, finally remembering what it really means to be Americans (here in New England we never forgot).  This truly does promise to be a new era for our country.

And there’s no question that last night was a triumph for civil rights, a fact that affects me personally.  Because of my dark skin and coloring, I’ve been treated as a person of color my entire life.  The word “mulatto” has been whispered behind my back since boyhood, and I’m one of the few white people ever to have been called the “N-word” to my face (and if you don’t see how that’s possible for someone who’s not African-American, well, you’ve obviously never lived in Ohio).  Not to mention that my family is transracial, since my partner and I are raising an African-American son.

So there’s no doubt that the election of a biracial American president is a huge step forward for people like me and my family, and for civil rights in this country.  Except that, once again, “civil rights” don’t apply to you if you’re gay or even if - like my son - you’re straight but your family happens to be gay.  Maybe now we finally have an America where, in the words of the great Martin Luther King, Jr., “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”  I certainly hope so.

But it’s still an America where my child is judged and condemned, not because of the content of his character, but because his fathers love him and each other.

America, you took a great leap forward last night.  But stop patting yourself on the back.  Because while gay families and our children are still treated as second-class citizens, the promise of “liberty and justice for all” is still an empty one.  You’ve got a long way to go.

Check out the latest from the Vote No on Prop 8 Campaign in California.

Watch our 30 second video that talks about what Prop 8 really is about: what kind of world we want each person and our children to live in—one that is free from discrimination and intolerance.

It’s going to take everyone we know—and everyone they know—to defeat Prop. 8. Easily email everyone you know—your family and friends. Tell them why defeating Prop 8 is so important.