CHILDREN GROWING UP WITH GAY PARENTS

I don't have any close relationships with gay couples who have children. The one couple I did know (I did the video for their wedding) is now divorced. So their adopted daughter is the product of a broken home just like many children these days.

I haven't heard any compelling evidence to suggest that there is anything qualitatively different in the experiences children have growing up in gay households compared to traditional husband/wife households.

All of us have unique family groups. We create them, we fall into them, we leave them, we destroy and rebuild them.

Many gay couples openly and lovingly adopt children, or conceive through IVF or surrogacy. In a land where their marriage is not legally recognized, it is amazing and noteworthy that parenthood is still a possibility.

Cheers to queers who dare to journey into parenthood. Blessings to you children who have parents who know what it means to love in the face of adversity.

PASTEL GARDENS & INTERIOR DECORATING

The garden drawn on the walls of my living room makes the adult in me go WHY! and it's not a question.

The three year old child who does not yet have an internalized adult self only grins at her work.

"Look mama, I drew a pink dinosaur on the wall." There is a garden of love in her heart. She doesn't seem to understand "color only on your paper" even though if I ask her she will tell me that we must "never color on the walls."

She is just a baby really and I'm thinking about the labor that I will have to give someday to erase all the markings. Probably a whole new paint job for the entire house. There seems to be no other way around it.

But perhaps even in that work too I will find Zen - the peace that comes from losing thought to physical work.

I will tend to the garden of my walls. So why fret now? Why not give her the box of crayons and say, "Have a nice time!" ???????