Ellen Kahn interviews author Abigail Garner

Garner's new book, Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It Is, intertwines her experiences growing up with a gay father and straight mother with those of other children who were raised by lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender parents. She doesn't flinch from addressing the complex issues surrounding what it means for children raised in LGBT families, herself included, to be, in the words of advocate Stefan Lynch, "culturally queer, erotically straight." Vanity Fair calls the book "indispensable."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• LGBT
• families
• Stefan
• Lynch
• gay
• parents

[gaybyboomfilm]

LGBT families we want you! Gayby Boom film seeks home videos by LGBT parents from around the world to compile this feature documentary. Deadline September 1, 2010. Website: gaybyboomfilm (dot) com Thank you!

[rainbowheartgirl]

Good interview! I did really enjoy Abigail's book, but I think parts of it are definitely geared more towards kids of the 70s and 80s, and not this newer generation. All the stuff about AIDS and divorce usually doesn't apply to "gayby boomers" And even though I'm older, I was raised in a two-dad home from the time I was 3, so I did find that some of it didn't relate to my experience as a child. However, I still think this is a *must read* for LGBT parents since it does have lots of good advice.

[ProFriend]

Nothing says comments have to be directly related to the video's subject. I'm only commenting on the use of the term LGBT. The reason many T's don't like the association is that they don't want the accompanying baggage and percieved LGB lifestyle stereotypes applied to them. 90% think of themselves as being heterosexual - just born in the wrong body. As one 14 year old MtF said to me, "it's a bummer of a birth defect."

[EscambiaDemocrats]

and the topic for this video is about the kids of LGB and/or T parents and how those kids perceive themselves and society and their families while growing up. What you are telling kids of T parents, who may read this, is they are somehow even more isolated than kids of LGB when they actually have the same problems we do in how society describes our families. I don't completely grasp why T's want to exclude themselves from LGB's, but even so, this topic is about the kids of LGBT families

[ProFriend]

The point is that many transgender people don't like being thought of as part of the LGB community. They'd rather the T be left off LGB. One even wrote a book about the issue, called "Stop the Rainbow, I Want to Get Off!"

[EscambiaDemocrats]

So were you talking a kid being transgendered?

That would also be a different topic.

[ProFriend]

I'm not sure you replied to the correct video. I didn't even mention parents. My comment was not on the video itself, but a side issue it raises. No twisting here.

[EscambiaDemocrats]

The topic is about the children of LGBT parents. You are twisting it to be about the parents and the topic is the children.

[ProFriend]

The LGB community seems to add "T" automatically, even when the issue or discussion doesn't inlude transgendered people. Also, I don't like lumping a known birth defect into the LGB "pot." Transgendered people do share some issues and difficulties with the LGB community, many of the issues are different. Foremost it the fact that TG kids often self-identify as early as age 3 or 4 - LGB kids most often don't until puberty.

[polimartine]

Abigail,

You do an amazing job. I'm a college teacher of social work and will use this video and your book in the future. Thanks for all you do gor GLBT families