"Oh My Gosh, I'm FAMOUS!"

"Oh my Gosh, I'm FAMOUS!!!" Hunter exclaimed as I proudly showed him the cover of Gay Parent Magazine. I finally held in my hand the publication that helped me achieve a long time dream of being published. Gay Parent Magazine (http://www.gayparentmag.com) is a independent magazine that is the longest running, nationally distributed publication dedicated to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parenting (LGBT). They ran my first blog entry, "There's No Dad" in their January/February issue. More than that, they featured me and most of my family on the cover.

The missing person was Skye. When I submitted the picture for GPM, I sent in one of Hunter, Donna and myself, because my first article featured him. When Skye saw the cover, her reaction was confused, because a very important person was not there. Her. It broke my heart. And, it forced me to explain why. I told her we didn't know we would be featured on the cover, but had we known, of course she would have been there too.

She accepted that explanation and is hopeful as we all are that for a future issue, perhaps the entire Graffam family will be featured. And after speaking to the publisher, I'm positive someday, that will happen.

I find Hunter's reaction priceless. How remarkable that we have raised him to be very proud to be featured on a magazine that has a big bold title Gay Parent emblazoned across the top?  Lately, he's been taking his own public opinion polls about people's acceptance of his family. I think he's become more aware of how his family is different from most. And he's trying to reconcile his own positive personal experience with that of other people's negative experiences.

He recently spent the day with Donna at the Queens Zoo, where she works. One of the guys in the Maintenance Department took him along for a coffee run and Hunter asked him, "Do you know my mothers are gay?" Jeff cautiously answered, "Yeah." Hunter shared that Jeff's tone led him to believe that our being gay wasn't a big deal to him. It encouraged him to talk about Tyler Clementi, the young man who committed suicide after a video of him on a date with another man was posted on YouTube. In Hunter's mind, his decision kill himself didn't make sense. We had to explain to Hunter that not everyone in the world is as accepting of gay people as his friends and family are.

Tyler was the inspiration for this blog. I started it in an effort to show young gay men and lesbians that it does get better. I was also closeted until late in my freshman year of college. After I came out, I had a good deal of work to do in rebuilding my relationships with important people in my life, but it does get better. Twenty years after my own coming out, I live in a beautiful suburb in New Jersey, openly gay and the proud parent of two terrific kids. I can excitedly share the magazine with friends and family and have them share in the joy of my accomplishment.

I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like had Gay Parent Magazine been available to me as a young woman. I take great comfort in knowing it's available now to show GLBT people the possibilities of parenthood. I want to thank them for giving me a voice beyond the blog, to share and demonstrate to the world that our families matter. I hope my readership gets as much joy out of reading about our adventures in parenting  as I get in writing about them.