BOOKS
An intimate investigation of the world's largest experiment in social engineering, revealing how its effects will shape China for decades to come and what that means for the rest of the world.
A much needed book that addresses the many questions and important issues associated with lesbian and gay parenting, by a well-known psychotherapist and lesbian parent.
Pride and Joy is full of stories, advice and real-life experience from LGBT parents and their children. Sometimes funny, sometimes moving, sometimes surprising, every story sheds new light on what it’s like for LGBT people raising children in the UK and Ireland today.
Part memoir, part ground-breaking polemic, Straight Jacket looks beneath the shiny facade of contemporary gay culture and asks if gay people are as happy as they could be – and if not, why not?
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
LGBTQIA+
Gay parenting: it's complicated by Emma Brockes (2012)
Undeterred by all they have to go through – financially, legally and socially – to make it happen, increasing numbers of gay couples are choosing to have children
Matthew Todd on growing up gay: "We are strapped inside a cultural straitjacket" by Matthew Todd
"Despite the extraordinary social changes, homophobia is still rife. Many LGBT people, especially those who are white, wealthy and live in big cities, may rarely encounter prejudice."
'A relationship needs more than biology' by James Higgins
Bristol 24/7 interview with LGBT couples about their experiences of adopting
Gay fathers’ motivations for and feelings about surrogacy as a path to parenthood by L.Blake
Why do gay men choose to start their families through surrogacy?
Gay teacher launches network to help British LGBT colleagues by Rebecca Ratcliffe
Event for new support group, LGBTed, coincides with section 28 anniversary and aims to create role models in schools
BEING A PARENT, or not - the decisions and implications
Poem of the Week: And On What by Dennis O'Driscoll (article by Carol Rumens)
Dennis O'Driscoll's poem is perhaps uncomfortable in its directness: but are these not necessary questions to ask?
You can be happy for Tom Daley & Dustin Lance Black and criticise commercial surrogacy at the same time by Victoria Smith
Surrogacy can be a joyful act of generosity - but there is a need to understand the risks to the most vulnerable women once we start to think of wombs as rentable spaces
Do you have children? And if not, why not? by Christine Manby
You can't ask me that! Continuing her series tackling socially unacceptable questions, Christine Manby discusses whether you can ask someone why they don't have children.
Regretting Motherhood, by Orna Donath
"Israeli sociologist and anthropologist Donath (Making a Choice: Being Childfree in Israel) breaks open what she describes as an “unspoken taboo,” bringing the notion that women regret becoming mothers into the public discourse with her latest research..."
Love and regret: mothers who wish they’d never had children by Jedidajah Otte
"Around the world, women are seeking an honest, open debate about what happens when you admit that motherhood isn’t everything you were told to expect"
Don't want children? Or not sure? Share your experiences with The Guardian
The Guardian want to hear from you if you have either definitely decided or are considering not having children
ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Why climate activists can’t agree if we should be having fewer children by Jessica Brown
Including an interview with co-artistic directors Nir & George, this article discusses various views surrounding whether or not having fewer children is the answer to the climate change problem.
Would you give up having children to save the planet? Meet the couples who have by Amy Fleming
The environmental toll of having even one child is enormous - 58.6 tonnes of carbon each year. So is going child-free the answer to our climate crisis?
How family planning could be part of the answer to climate change by David Hodgkinson and Rebecca Johnston
Having two children could leave more carbon emissions than you can save by changing lightbulbs.
As Environmental Catastrophe Looms, Is it Ethical to Have Children? by Foreign Policy Staff
Two philosophers discuss the morality of family planning in the age of climate change.
I'm worried having a baby will make climate change worse by Sophie Lewis
Should we have children? Sophie Lewis had trouble reconciling her concern for climate change with her desire to be a parent.
Would you have kids, given climate change? by Ashley Ahearn and responses from the public here
Should we have kids, given where the planet is headed?
Raising a zero footprint baby by Earth Share
Keya decided to raise her son with as little environmental impact as possible.
Bioethicist: The climate crisis calls for fewer children by Travis Rieder
"I’m genuinely worried about the future of our planet, and the people who will inherit it, and I believe difficult yet civil discussion is the crucial first step to making that future one we won’t be condemned for creating".
How to cut carbon emissions, published in The Economist
"Carbon emissions vary hugely between countries. That is well known, as is the finding that rich people emit more than poor ones. But a newly revised paper by Emilio Zagheni of the Max Planck Institute in Rostock, Germany also shows how carbon footprints vary by age—and the worrying implications of this."
BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
This illustrated children's book fictionalizes the true story of two male penguins who became partners and raised a penguin chick in the Central Park Zoo.
Children, adolescents and young adults here talk openly and candidly about how and when they learned of their parent's sexual orientation and the effect it had on them and their families
A beautifully illustrated, affirming story of life with Two Dads, written from the perspective of their adopted child.