LesbianFamily.org » Clare

News from Latin America and a Bienvenida

Clare — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:41:53 +0000

I have been updating the Spanish blogs– I would like to welcome A. Daniela, a Chilean couple in search of their first child and to create community in Chile for lesbian mothers.

Also, if you want LGBT news (in English) of the happenings in Latin America check out Julieta‘s new blog: Get your Queer OUT in Latin America.

Please, if you know of any blogs I am missing — and I know that there are more bloggeras lesbianas alli– leave me a comment and I will work on fixing that!

More blogs in Español

Clare — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 05:45:52 +0000

Here are some new (or better said, just found blogs):

Mamas Lesbianas a partir de los 42 años: about a couple and their adopted daughter

Adopcion nacional: about two able-bodied adult white women in Spain who have one daughter with a disability adopted internationally and who are trying to adopt a second child with a handicap through national (Spain) adoption

Una Familia Especial: family with two adolescents in Mexico

Círculo de Familias Diversas: Blog for LGBT families in Mexico City

Dos lesbianas, nueve meses y una nueva vida: who are pregnant

Dos mujeres, un niño y lo que venga: Spain with small child

El blog de Luli: Luli (who is tiny and beautiful) and her mothers blog

En busca de lo naranja y verde: Two moms and a little boy in Barcelona

La suma de nosotras: Expecting in Spain

Mami x opcion: Lesbian mom by choice of a 3 month old

Mamás lesbianas y bebé: In madrid with a newborn

Matriz: Moms with a 4 year old

Milu, Nunu y un hada: Moms with a young child

Welcome to all the new blogs!!!

***Polly, can you help me get these into the blogrolls??? I don’t know how and I don’t want to bother Liza as she just had her beautiful baby girl Josephine Rose!!!!***

Biweekly question: LGBT friendly books?

Clare — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:46:35 +0000

I have to fess up that I have been miserable at trying to contribute to this site. Perhaps I could blame stressful job and stressful change of job and, most recently, unemployment (okay, admittedly, I do not have the stresses that many of you do while unemployed, so I will not complain). Perhaps I could blame the fact that I simply have not found more lesbian mom sites in other languages that most of you can’t read. Perhaps I can blame the fact that I haven’t gotten to many lesbian mom related questions from Hispanic women recently– I think that Julieta has long since taken over the category of go-to-person. That said, I won’t. I will just say I have been lazy and not sure what to write about. That, however, is coming to an end.

Since I still don’t know what to write about I thought of Liza’s suggestions post Blogher 2007. On my own blog I have had some success with weekly and biweekly features like weekly picture or posting as part of a topic community. Also, I was thinking that interaction is part of what makes LesbianFamily such a great site. Therefore, I am going to do I pilot run of a project I call “biweekly question”. This will be my space to pose a question for you, the esteemed reader who knows much more than I, to answer. (Keep in mind, if no one answers this will not work and I will dejectedly go back to writing on my blog– Is that a guilt trip or what?) To tag along with Mombian’s recent question about LGBT Children’s books in Spanish, I thought the first question should be:

What is your child’s/ or your favorite LGBT friendly book and why?

Feel free to answer either 1) in the comments or 2) on your own blog and then put a link to it in the comments. Thanks everybody!

Read to your kids in Spanish

Clare — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 03:56:29 +0000

There is a lot of chatter about inclusive stories for kids. While in school libraries in the US and Canada these books may be few and far between, they are much harder to track down in some other places (and in some other languages).
Gabi pointed out this amazing site where you can actually download stories for kids in Spanish. The page is called Stories for Diversity and is produced by the LGBT collective of Madrid, COGAM. According to Gabi, the majority of the .PDFs download without any problem.

I took a look at some of the stories and they are really very cute. Not to mention, some of them are simple enough for a parent with little Spanish to be able to read to her son or daughter.

Anti-racist parenting

Clare — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 00:29:01 +0000

Growing up, my parents devoted quite a bit of time talking to my sister and I about white privilege and making sure that we understood how the world worked and what we wanted it to look like. From them, I learned that this idea of anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-ism parenting started in the home. Living abroad and dating people of different genders, racial backgrounds and cultural backgrounds, I have spent a bit of time thinking about anti-racist parenting and what I might want that to look like in my future family life. I think this is a shared concern for many lesbian mothers, not just the ones who have minority children, but also the ones who understand that one ism (racism) leaves room for other isms (homophobia) to flourish.

My friend Dave, who has a beautiful foster son with his partner, pointed out this web page to me and I thought I would share it. Anti-Racist Parent has a huge variety of blog contributers (including at least one lesbian family) that talk fairly directly about their ideas, views, thoughts, suggestions, and questions on white privilege, anti-racist parenting, international adoption, inter-racial adoption, and so much more. Enjoy!

***Note, this web page is already listed in the resources area– but after spending a couple hours on it today, I thought it was worth pointing out again. Especially since I ~~never~~ forget to look at the resource list and I am sure there are others out there like me***

The “bloggeras”: Lesbian Family with a latin twist

Clare — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 04:47:15 +0000

(En español abajo)

So, I wanted to have some great post for my first post since joining the team (guest post aside). So I started thinking about what I could talk about—after all, I neither currently have children nor am I in the process of making them or planning them. What exactly do I have to contribute?

Back when Mombian had her 2^nd Annual Blogging for LGBT Families, I blogged about how the Chilean courts have decided that it is okay to take a child away from her biological mother based on the mothers sexual orientation. But what of other Hispanic lesbian mothers? Where are they? What do they think? Do they have an online community?

After a day or two of obsessive google and technorati surfing, I have found a few Spanish blogs by lesbian families. As I began to leave notes on different pages and meet different people, one thing became enormously clear. In much of Latin America and Spain, women having children for the most part feel incredibly isolated. I actually have received emails from lesbian families without blogs introducing themselves; people who are searching the internet for connection.

One of the first blogs I found is one that is trying to help foster that connection. Julieta has been translating Mombian’s Family Voices series into Spanish to help her friends and family see the multiplicity that LGBT families can have. She also is taping and posting Discovery’s Home and Health episode of Here comes baby that featured a lesbian couple and was dubbed into Spanish.

To do my part to help create community and open lines of connection, I am going to introduce the seven blogs I have found (in a separate post) and Lesbian Family will have a new Español blog category. I know that not all of the Spanish bloggers actually speak English, so it would be great if those English blogs that have a blogger who speaks some Spanish could say so in the comment section. This way the Spanish bloggers will know what blogs they can comment on in Spanish and which blogs they can turn to and ask questions to if they wish.

———————————-

Pues, yo querría tener algo extraordinario por mi primer post acá (aparte de mi post de visitante). Entonces, empecé a pensar en lo que podía escribir—pues yo ni soy mama ni estoy planeando ser mama luego. ¿Qué precisamente puedo contribuir yo?

Un tiempo atrás, cuando Mombian tuve su 2º dia anual para blogear por familias LGBT, yo escribi un post sobre la decisión del corte supremo en Chile que niños podían ser sacado de la casa basado en la sexualidad de sus madres. Pero, ¿Qué hay de otras madres latinas lesbianas? ¿Dónde están? ¿Qué piensan? ¿Tienen una comunidad online?

Después de dos días de buscar obsesivamente por google y technorati, he encontrado unos blogs de la maternidad lesbiana en español. Mientras que dejé notitas en distintas paginas web y conocer unas parejas, se me aclaró una cosa. En mucho de Latinoamérica y España, las mujeres lesbianas teniendo niños se sientan aisladas unas de otras. De hecho he recibido emailes de familias lesbianas quien no tuvieron un blog introduciéndose; gente que estaban buscando el Internet para formar una conexión.

Uno de los primeros blogs que encontré estaba crear esa conexión. Julieta ha traducido la serie de voces familiares de Mombian en español para ayudar a sus amigos y familia ver la multiplicidad que tienen las familias LGBT. Ella también ha grabado y colocado un episodio de La llegada del bebé en el Discovery Casa y Salud que tenia una pareja lesbiana y era doblada al español.

Para hacer mi parte en crear un comunidad y abrir lineas con conexión, voy a introducir los siete blogs que he encontrado hasta ahora (en un post aparte) y Lesbian Family tendrá una lista en su blogroll de blogs en Español. Sé que no todos las bloggeras latinas hablen ingles, por lo tanto sería genial si los bloggeras (que tienen blogs en inglés) que tienen alguien que habla un poco de español se lo puede comentar acá. Así las bloggeras latinas sabrán donde pueden comentar en español y donde pueden ir a preguntar si quieren o necesitan.

Familia Lesbiana– Blogs en Español

Clare — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:19:38 +0000

This is what I hope will be the start of a list of blogs in Spanish by and about lesbian families. If anyone knows anyone else, please send them this way. Without further ado, I give you:

Julieta and her less-than-legal wife who are still in the planning stages over at http://willowsbrain.blogspot.com/.

Magui, Gabi, a three year relationship, a cat, a dog, and the desire to start a family in Argentina at http://quemarnaves.blogspot.com/

Florencia and Gabriela who are TTCing in Argentina at http://maternidadeslesbicas.blogspot.com/

Guza and Oruga waiting for their Juan in Argentina at http://saltorana.blogspot.com/

Tilvy and Andre have triplets Abril, Jazmin, and Santi who were born at 27 weeks and are still in the NICU, but doing well in Argentina at http://ellalostrillizosyyo.blogspot.com/

Ana and Paula with their 1 year old twins in Argentina at http://piedralibreparadosmamas.blogspot.com/

Cris and Ana with their twins Diego and Santi in Mexico at http://dosmamis.blogspot.com/

Roma, Triana, and their 4 year old son Tati in Argentina at http://mamispordos.blogspot.com/

Lesbian Families as Role Models (Guest Post)

Clare — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:52:54 +0000

Reader, thinker, and real life friend Clare sent me (Liza) this message below, and I thought it would be a fabulous guest post here. In the interests of full disclosure, I have been close friends with Clare’s (straight) older sister since I was about 18 and full of radical organizing and world-changing ideas and Clare was about 7 and full of cuteness and love/admiration for her big sister.

From time to time there is a discussion that the blog sphere has created a good space for lesbian families, and queer people and allies in general, to connect to one another. Obviously, Lesbian Family, was born out of these connections. And, for those on the inside, this connection and safety of community is an end of itself.

However, I would like to talk about something else that Lesbian Family provides: role models. Some of you are probably not going to like to think about it this way, but role modeling and having queer role models is something I have thought a lot about lately. It is also something I was blessed to grow up with.

Growing up, even if in Wisconsin, I babysat in the early 90s for a lesbian family, my parents had partnered gay friends who they brought home, one of my sister’s best friends went on to start Lesbian Family, etc. Looking back, all of these experiences, especially the ones at an early age, shaped my view of being queer, of being out, of belonging. Over and over, however, I see that my experience may not have been the status quo—especially for bi/lesbian women of color or from other countries.

A couple years ago, I met an Asian woman who had been studying and living in middle America for 5 years. Although she was attracted to women, she told me that she never would consider a relationship because she couldn’t stand the thought of growing up and not having children. The idea that lesbian families around the world are having and raising children had never occurred to her, as she had never heard of it or seen it. After seeing Lesbian Family, and reading up a bit, her ideas changed.

Another friend from the southern hemisphere tells me that although she is queer and dates women, she can’t imagine seeing it back home. She can only imagine lesbian families in the middle/ upper class America or other western nation sense (she also admits that the image she still holds in her head is that of white America). Although she knows there must be queer people in her home country, she has never seen them nor can she imagine that they have a space in her society.

Back in America, a friend just last week told me two things that shocked me: 1) that she had never met a well adjusted, settled down, lesbian couple and 2) that there was no place in corporate America for out lesbians.

Over and over my mind returns to the idea of role models. If a person hasn’t seen it, how hard is it to imagine? If a person sees a solid lesbian couple with kids, how easy is it to see that path as viable? How important is it that these role models, these lesbian/queer/trans couples, look like us (economically, physically, racially, religiously, etc.)? And, how have role models or lack thereof influenced your struggles in creating a family?