Author: Brett

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/14/here-come-the-brides-kristen-henderson-sarah-ellis_n_1091355.html

Rocker Kristen Henderson and magazine executive Sarah Ellis had started to think marriage just wasn’t in their future. That’s because the couple, who met in Manhattan in 2005, live in a state where same sex marriage wasn’t legal. Or at least it wasn’t until last June.

The two women watched in frustration in 2009 as the state senate voted down a bill that would give LGBT citizens the right to marry.

By the time the senate had another opportunity to legalize gay marriage, in June 2011, Sarah and Kristen had two more reasons to hope the bill passed: their two-year-old children, Thomas and Kate. In a June 15th blog post on The Huffington Post, Sarah wrote that the thought of the Marriage Equality Act not passing left her “heartbroken, for my children. With all of the countless precautions I take to nurture and protect my children, I cannot guard them against the deep ramifications the non-passage of this bill would have on them.”

Then on June 24th, 2011 the bill passed.

Sarah and Kristen, who now live in Seacliff, New York with their kids, told the story of their road to motherhood in their memoir “Times Two: Two Women in Love and the Happy Family They Made” published in April 2011, but we wanted to tell the story of their road to marriage.

In the video above, the first of three chronicling that journey, you’ll catch Kristen and Sarah as they recall how they met and begin, at last, to plan the wedding they’ve always wanted.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/15/here-come-the-brides-kristen-henderson-sarah-ellis-part-2_n_1093580.html

On Nov. 14, we brought you Part 1 of “Here Come The Brides”–a three-part original video series telling the story of lesbian couple’s difficult journey to the wedding they looked forward to for so long.

In Part 2 (above), Kristen and Sarah recall two of the major milestones on their path to the altar — domestic partnership, the value of which they question, and motherhood, which brought them as close as possible to the family they envisioned for themselves. Sarah and Kristen first chronicled how they became parents — — in vitro for Sarah, artificial insemination for Kristen, same donor — in their book “Times Two: Two Women in Love and the Happy Family They Made,” but here they talk about how their dreams of motherhood actually delayed their pursuit of marriage.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/16/here-come-the-brides-kristen-henderson-sarah-ellis-part-3_n_1095996.html?ref=weddings

Today we bring you Part 3 (above) of “Here Come the Brides,” our original video series following New York couple Sarah Ellis, a magazine marketing executive, and Kristen Henderson, a founding member of the band Antigone Rising, as they finally plan the wedding they dreamed of for years. (Watch Part 1 to hear how they met and Part 2 to see how motherhood played into their desire to marry).

As Sarah and Kristen mention in the video above, they were devastated in 2009 when the New York Senate voted down a bill that would allow LGBT individuals to marry. But at that point they had two wonderful distractions: simultaneous pregnancies and then all of the joys and sleepless nights involved in raising two infants.

By the time their babies, Kate and Thomas, were 2 years old, and Kristen and Sarah were able to refocus on their desire to wed, the New York State legislature was once again considering a bill that would legalize gay marriage. In this third and final part of their story, we hear how the historic New York senate vote on June 24, 2011 changed their lives and watch as they finally say their vows.

http://adoptionhelp.org/blog/2011/celebrity-guncles-reach-out-to-prospective-adoptive-parents/

New dads, Scout Masterson & Bill Horn, also known as, The Guncles, on Oxygen’s hit reality show, “Tori & Dean Home Sweet Hollywood” have started an adoption mentoring service called “Hold My Hand” to answer questions prospective parents have concerning adoption and parenting.

http://celebritybabies.people.com/2010/06/17/tori-spelling-guncles-bill-horn-scout-masterson-simone/

 

It’s a girl for the Guncles!

Bill Horn and Scout Masterson, Tori Spelling’s dear friends and regulars on her reality show Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, have welcomed daughter Simone Lynn Masterson-Horn, who was born last week weighing 6 lbs., 2 oz. and measuring 18 inches long.

Simone is the first child for the couple, whom Spelling lovingly refers to as “Gay Uncles” to Liam, 3, and Stella, 2, her kids with husband Dean McDermott.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20458260,00.html

Everyone, it seems, wants to be on Glee. And Anne Hathawaysoon will be – in an offbeat role she invented for herself.

“We just finalized a deal with Anne tonight to come onto the show,” creator Ryan Murphy told PEOPLE on Sunday at the Golden Globe Awards, whereGlee was named best comedy or musical for the second straight year.

“She’s already created [her role],” Murphy said. “She wants to play the lesbian aunt of Chris Colfer. Because everyone needs a lesbian aunt.”

http://www.advocate.com/News/News_Features/Say_Uncle__Gay_Uncles_Face_Off/

 

As parents now wait until their 30s and 40s to start families, so too are modern grandparents finding themselves making this “career change” later in life — often well into their 70s, when they may not exactly be in their prime for the job’s demands. And thus marks the rise of the gay uncle — the guy who spoils you rotten, answers all those questions you can’t ask your parents, and has you home in time for dinner. But this modern-day guncles phenomenon presents a major question: What exactly is it guncles are supposed to be doing?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35347847/ns/health-behavior/t/gay-guys-make-generous-uncles-study-shows/#.TtQltnOlfN8

 

Homosexual men may perpetuate genes by nurturing nieces and nephews

 

Maybe everyone could use a gay uncle.

A new study found that homosexual men may be predisposed to nurture their nieces and nephews as a way of helping to ensure their own genes get passed down to the next generation.

Research has confirmed that male homosexuality is at least partly hereditary – it tends to cluster in families, and identical twin brothers of gay men are more likely to be gay than fraternal twin brothers, who do not share identical DNA.

But scientists have been puzzled about how these genes are perpetuated, since homosexual males are less likely to reproduce than straight males. Basically, why haven’t gay people gone extinct?

One idea is called the “kin selection hypothesis.” Perhaps gay men are biologically predisposed to help raise the offspring of their siblings and other relatives.

http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/science/article/762699–gay-uncles-important-for-evolution-study-finds

 

Gay uncles command a vital role in evolution, a surprising new Canadian study reveals.

Dr. Paul Vasey, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Lethbridge, based his findings on repeated study of the “third gender” fa’afafine in Samoa – men who live as women and are universally accepted in the island’s culture.

Fa’afafine are far more likely to care for and help their nieces and nephews than heterosexual men and women, the study found. But the same nurturing, altruistic behaviour wasn’t there for children who weren’t relatives.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/02/gay-guys-make-great-uncles-maybe-thats-why-theyre-still-among-us.html

 

Evolutionary biologists have long scratched their heads over homosexuality in men: If there is a genetic component to male homosexuality–a view for which there is considerable evidence–then why has that gene persisted to this day? After all, if one were disinclined to spread one’s seed in places where it would result in offspring and extend your bloodline, evolutionary reasoning would tell you that genetic propensity would disappear.

And yet they live among us–sons, brothers, dads and uncles. Especially uncles.

http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=29575

Former local Brett Berk’s parenting tips might shock some (pick your nose! throw snowballs!), but he’s queer – so he’s right.

 

For a man who doesn’t have any kids – and has zero desire to raise one, or two, or five – Brett Berk is the Tim Gunn of child-rearing. Like the “Project Runway” know-it-all’s venture into publishing, Berk’s book debut, “The Gay Uncle’s Guide to Parenting,” a hilariously hip how-to read, offers input on potty-training, nose-picking and spanking (hey, we’re talking about raising kids here!). And like Gunn, the formerly Farmington Hills-based author, who will sign copies at 7 p.m. March 19 at Borders in Birmingham, is also queer – and that, when considering that gays are the new grandmas, makes him wholly qualified. Right?