Tue 25 Jul 2006
We Are One. But We Are Not The Same?
Posted by Liza under Opinion
I’ve been having an interesting series of conversations about whether or not there is a unique blogospheric voice of lesbian mommy bloggers, pregnant lesbian bloggers, and lesbian TTC bloggers, or really, whether or not there is a need to develop a central and updated blogroll of us.
The whole thing was sparked by the fabulous S’s recent query to her Babes in Blogland readers, about how they might like to see that site expand. She and I exchanged some email on the pros and cons of creating a "2 moms" tag or category, and/or racial, ethnic, or religious categories. Since her post, I’ve been having that conversation simultaeously on a few other fronts, both in real life and online, and I decided it was time to bring the conversation here.
I’m of two minds.
At least two. Maybe more.
On the one hand, I read lots of awesome blogs by straight mommies, pregnant women, and TTC-ers, and I know that some of you awesome straight people read my blog too. (No examples, because I’d feel terrible when I realized who I forgot.)
All of us go through the same crazy stages (if we’re lucky enough to get pregnant and become mommies): the roller coaster of trying to get pregnant, the physical bizarreness of being pregnant, the high drama of giving birth, the exhaustion of figuring out how to do this mom thing. All of us are plagued by poop and poop management. (Aside: Noah pooped three times yesterday, all at school! Can I tell you how happy his mommies are??? AND he pooped again there today! Four poops and no poopy diapers for us!)
Maybe I read your blog for the first time because you were a pregnant or TTC lesbian, or maybe it was because you’re a mom or were pregnant or TTC when I was pregnant, but I kept reading because you can write, and you’re saying something interesting. Yes, I’m talking about you.
But.
Our families face some unique challenges as families with two moms and (usually) no dad.
I want Noah to grow up knowing other kids with 2 moms and 2 dads, so if he does get teased or feel weird, at least he’ll know he isn’t alone. And I want to hear how other lesbian moms work out legal protection for their families, whether through adoption or otherwise. How do we deal with strange or awkward situations with insurance companies or fertility specialists or hospitals?
Finding other blogs written by lesbian moms, pregnant women, and ttc-ers was hugely important to me when I first got pregnant. Technorati wasn’t very helpful. Surfing your blogrolls was, once I found a couple of your blogs.
On the other hand, S pointed out to me that the homophobic fundie mommy-blogosphere is pretty big and well organized, and they can get pretty vitrolic. Some of the new mommy bloggers on my blogroll got hit by some serious nastygrams from alleged Christians when they had their babies or dealt with difficulties during pregnancy. Maybe making a list for those people to attack is a bad idea.
I was almost persuaded by that argument when ClubMom launched the beta of it’s social networking site, The Mom Network. I had a work excuse to explore some social networking sites, and decided to make that my first one.
It’s pretty much impossible to be out on the Mom Network. And the more I looked for ways to be out or other lesbian moms, the more disappointed I became. Even among their dozen+ Mommy Bloggers, who blog in more than 30 categories, they don’t have any same-sex family bloggers.
Naturally I sent them a very nice note recommending adding "domestic partner" to the relationship status option and changing "husband issues" to "husband/partner issues" for the social networking categories. And I offered myself and you as potential lesbian mommy bloggers.
That was only yesterday, so I’m prepared to wait a little while for a response.
However, the experience made me lean more towards thinking that we could really use an easier way to find other lesbian moms and parents (hopefully) to be. We can be surprisingly hard to find.
What do you think?




July 25th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
I can see why you have two schools of thought on this and I completely understand why.
I love reading parent blogs.. and I dont care if there are 2 mommies, one mommy and a daddy, two daddies or single parents of either sex. I think we all go through very similar experiences raising children and I love reading about everyone elses poop.
BUT
I also see that there would be specific issues for mom/mom and dad/dad households that perhaps through the blogosphere, you can all help each other with answers and support of those various issues.. thats what we’re all here for, right? Support and answers and the sharing of ideas and experiences.. I dont think that should be limited in any way.
I’m not much help, am I?
I guess thats me saying that Yes.. there should be a community or portal that would help same sex partners (and singles, cant forget the single moms and dads.. I dont know how they do it) with children find each other.
July 26th, 2006 at 8:59 am
i’m not sure i understand the issue. are you talking about starting a mom club type site for same sex parents? i don’t see the downside.
you can still (of course) read straight parenting blogs and link to them on your blog roll (perhaps in a separate section). you can even let straight parents (and non-parents) become members of the site. but if you have control of the site, you can make sure it remains a clearinghouse for same sex parenting info and blogs and is friendly to homosexuality.
look at ivillage for instance. it has a variety of boards on specific topics, including a gay and lesbian parenting board (http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-psgaylesbian)
any member of ivillage can post or read it, but the topics are generally geared to the interests of same sex parents and the moderator makes sure everyone remains supportive of homosexuality.
July 26th, 2006 at 11:13 am
Lizzie, you are always a big help. I’m glad I’m not alone in being uncertain about this topic!
Jen, I think there are a few possible next steps. One is whether Babes in Blogland should add the ability to search for blogs by “lesbian” or “2 moms.” Another is whether ClubMom should be encouraged to add that kind of searchability to their site. Both of those are, IMO, comparable to the iVillage example you shared.
A separate, although not mutually exclusive, possibility is my creating a Babes in Blogland equivalent for same sex couples. I’m unsure about whether or not I want to do that, but I did register the domain lesbianfamily.com. Maybe I’ll talk more with S offline about it.
July 26th, 2006 at 11:34 am
Well, I applied to the clubmom blogs and was strung along for 2 months… with them saying that they liked my writing and wanted to work with me, but then telling me no, but they’ll keep me in mind if they have open slots. But since then they’ve added more blogs… and then I noticed that there are several of those mom bloggers blogging as Christians. No other relgions are as overtly blogged about. And no alternative families, so I started thinking that I got the reaction that I did from club mom because I was offering to blog as a lesbian mom. And now I think it’s even more important that the lesbian mom voice get out there and get heard.
So funny, I sent them another email just yesterday pointing out that they are really ignoring a section of moms out there who both need/desire the representation/networking AND have purchasing power…
While I see the validity of the point that creating a blog roll or searchability factor could (and, to some extent, would) expose queer parent bloggers to fundie haters, the structure of the blogosphere won’t change until stuff like that begins to happen. I am willing to expose myself to haters if it means that other queer parents or parents-to-be (particularly non-bio parents) who need me can find me. Plus, I have seen where fundie moms have changed their minds about the evils of gay parents from reading blogs written by queer parents.
So, that’s my take. I’m tired of hiding. Maybe, create the tags or the list, or the site and then ask permission to link specific blogs to it so that the blog owners can make the decision to take on exposure.
Oh, and Sacha over at Babycakes is trying to put together a website of resources for queer parents and TTCers. And she’s planning on having a blogroll…
July 26th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Mombian has a good blogroll too….
July 26th, 2006 at 4:32 pm
Lots and lots to think about, definitely.
Trista, thanks so much for your perspective. I’m straight (though not narrow!) and so feel a bit out of my depth when contemplating the correct course here. I suppose if I do create a separate section for GLBT families flagging them specifically as such I will most likely contact each blogger for permission first so they can opt-out if they don’t want to be identified for the haters of the world. I already do list a lot of lesbian blogs at my site, but they’re not pointed out as being lesbian (though sometimes the site title does give them away).
Pretty sad ClubMom doesn’t have any lesbian bloggers at all. Way to be diverse!
July 27th, 2006 at 9:50 am
Like Lizzie, I also love reading parenting blogs–no matter who the bloggers are.
Along the same vein, I’m sure there are acres of blogrolls for adoptive parenting. So why not for LGBT parenting? I can definitely see the value for lesbian and gay parents–it’s true, your experiences are different from those of straight parents.
Also like Lizze, I can also see both sides here. I wonder if the best route is to create an offshoot of a blogroll such as S’s Babes in Blogland, thereby creating a not mutually exlusive blogroll but a blogroll that enhances one that already exists.
I’ll be anxious to hear how ClubMom responds.