I get a lot of e-mail from PR firms wanting me to blog about their products at Mombian.com (which, if you don’t know and it isn’t obvious, is a site for lesbian moms, after which this column is named). I usually give them a glance, having once myself managed public relations for a dotcom. I figure it’s good karma. Still, some of them are so clearly off target it makes me laugh. Here are a few gems I’ve received over the past year. Names removed or changed to protect the guilty.
According to UrbanDictionary.com–manscaping is “male grooming below the belt.” But now, a NY-based CEO has taken that term to a whole new level. Meet Jane Doe, CEO/Founder of [Company]– a product that claims to ‘color the hair down there.’ According to Jane, sales to the male demographic are up 15% this year–a projected 4% increase in just one year. So does this prove that manscaping is on the rise??
I’d love to link you up with Jane to discuss this ‘manscaping’ trend and the various options that are out there for men to take care of their ‘hair down there.’
Hmm. Think I’ll forward that one to Neal.
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Tags: pr, public relations
Filed under Business.
Campbell Soup is the latest company to realize the value of marketing to the $650 billion LGBT market—and specifically, to lesbian moms. They have run a two-page spread for Swanson’s broth in LGBT news magazine the Advocate, featuring two lesbian moms and their young son. The women, Lea Forant and Carolyn Montgomory, are owners of Café Forant in Manhattan, and apparently use Campbell’s Swanson chicken broth in preparing many of their Christmas Eve dishes.
The conservative American Family Association has already sent an e-mail to its members declaring “Campbell Soup Company embraces homosexual agenda.” The Advocate itself then covered the controversy, as did advertising trade journal AdAge (where you can see a large version of the ad).
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Tags: advocate, campbell soup
Filed under Business, Kitchen and Food.
Two weeks ago, I posted about the pair of male penguins in China who were trying to steal other penguins’ eggs in an attempt to become parents. Now, at the urging of zoo visitors, zookeepers have given them a hand: “We decided to give them two eggs from another couple whose hatching ability had been poor and they’ve turned out to be the best parents in the whole zoo,’ said one of the keepers. (Thanks, Good As You.)
Nice to see them following in Silo and Roy’s waddling footsteps. Their offspring will have to get together with Tango and form HOLAGE: Hatchlings of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere. (Apologies to COLAGE.) I’m also thinking that Join the Impact’s next action should be to organize a way for people to send stuffed toy penguins to various groups on the right.
Tags: and tango makes three, colage, join the impact, penguins
Filed under Family Creation.
Sometimes, a lesbian mom is just a mom. Most of us here know that, but it is rare that a media depiction portrays us that way.
ER, however, last night featured a lesbian mom and her spouse who could have been any other patient and significant other. There was no “lesbian” storyline per se, no denial of visitation rights to the spouse or sperm donor claiming rights over their child. It was wonderful in its normalcy. (—at least if you count the little reindeer bunting they had their infant in as normal. Despite my last name, I’m a little iffy on the trend of dressing up our children and our house pets as antlered creatures.)
But still . . . it would have been naive to expect the show that once starred Laura Innes as lesbian mom Dr. Kerry Weaver, among other positive LGBT characters, not to be making some additional point.
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Tags: er, kerry weaver, media, nbc, television
Filed under Entertainment.
Good news: The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear the case of “ex-lesbian” biological mom Lisa Miller, letting stand a ruling that Virginia must enforce a Vermont court order awarding child-visitation rights to Miller’s former civil-union partner Janet Jenkins. Newsweek covered the case this week just before the decision, in the too-cleverly titled “Mrs. Kramer vs. Mrs. Kramer”. (Never mind that even the legally married lesbians I know would never use the title “Mrs.”)
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Tags: child custody, custody, janet jenkins, lisa miller, supreme court, u.s. supreme court
Filed under Parenting, Politics and Law.
The guinea pigs have had the spotlight this year, as picture book Uncle Bobby’s Wedding has faced several attempted challenges from library patrons who wanted to remove or reshelve it. The penguins of And Tango Makes Three are not out of danger yet, however, as a school board meeting in Ankeny, Iowa made clear.
Cindy Dacus, one of the parents challenging Tango, told the board last month that Tango should not be allowed in the East Elementary School library because it attempts “to ‘normalize’ homosexuality to children who are too young to understand the ‘risky lifestyle.’”
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Tags: and tango makes three, ankeny, banned books, censorship, challenged books, iowa, uncle bobby's wedding
Filed under Books for Kids, Education.
Another blow to the “it’s unnatural” argument against same-sex parents:
Two male penguins at a zoo in China are so desperate to become parents that they are attempting to steal other penguins’ eggs and replace them with stones, reports Britain’s Daily Telegraph. The zookeepers have separated the pair from the rest of the group, but insist, “It’s not discrimination. We have to fence them separately, otherwise the whole group will be disturbed during hatching time.”
Clearly, they need to form a support group with Tango’s
dads, Silo and Roy.
Tags: gay penguins, penguins
Filed under Parenting.
Thanksgiving . . . when thousands of lesbian moms actually use their turkey basters for their intended purpose.
However you celebrate the holiday, may it be full of family and food.
Tags: thanksgiving
Filed under Holidays.
Frank Gill, a gay man from North Miami, has a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. He can now adopt the two foster children he has raised with his partner since 2004, after Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman today declared Florida’s 30-year-old ban on adoption by gay men and lesbians unconstitutional. Lederman said, “It is clear that sexual orientation is not a predictor of a person’s ability to parent.”
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Tags: adoption, adoption ban, florida
Filed under Family Creation, Parenting, Politics and Law.
I should also note that this week marks the fifth anniversary of the decision to enact marriage equality in Massachusetts, and I’m happy to report no locusts have been spotted in the Bay State.
(Thanks, Wil.)
Tags: graphjam, marriage, marriage equality
Filed under Ephemera, Politics and Law.
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