Massachusetts... Connecticut... Iowa... Vermont... New Hampshire... New York... Maine... Maryland... Washington... Rhode Island... Delaware... Minnesota. There may be fifty states, but these are my favorite twelve right now. In each, same-sex marriages are legally recognized. In each, LGBT families are one step closer to full and equal rights.

In the spirit of saying "I do!" with the weight of law behind us, I celebrate a few of the best LGBT marriages in children's literature...

Hello all! My name is Abbe Klezer and I am a new intern here at Family Equality Council. I have just completed my second year at West Virginia University College of Law where I am focusing my studies on family law and child protection. Although I spent my formative years in New Jersey, I began my legal studies after ten years as an English teacher in eastern Pennsylvania. I am the proud mom of a wonderful daughter who will be graduating from high school in a couple of weeks and going off to the Culinary Institute of America to pursue her dreams.

I am excited to be working with the Family Equality Council. This opportunity has afforded me the chance to be part of a community of people dedicated to showing the world that love is what makes a family. I hope to use my knowledge of the law and passion for child safety to assist the organization in its endeavors. This summer promises to be one of great progress and change and I am honored to be a part of the process. 

I am not a stereotypical parent.  This is not to say that I never nagged my children to do their homework and care for their teeth or that I wouldn’t given anything to protect them from the evils of the world.  I did and I would. It’s also not to say that I don’t miss them terribly now that they are grown with lives of their own; I do. Or that I’m not super excited about my first grandbaby, due later this year; I am.

No, where I fall out of the stereotype is in my own personal expression of gender; you see, I am a transgender woman.  This means that I live my life – legally and socially – as a woman, despite being assigned male at birth.  And, I have done so for the past two decades, since my children were 7, 9, and 11 years old.

On My 5th, my family and I celebrated International Family Equality Day, a holiday Family Equality Council helped create to celebrate families with parents who identify as LGBT. It was a fantastic day of fun. Also an inspirational day as I took stock of the fact that families with parents who are LGBT were celebrating in more than 15 countries from the US to Australia, Europe to Japan. International Family Equality Day in a new tradition for my family. One we will always look forward to. Now, just around the corner is Mother's Day- a day that has held tradition throughout my life.

For many of my young adult years, approaching this day in May meant I would race off on Saturday night to get a card for my mom to tell her how much I loved her. Now as a parent, Mother's Day has become a day I treasure and it fills my heart with much emotion.  About eleven years ago, my partner and I started seriously planning to become parents.  Given that we are two women, it required a great deal of plans, calculations and logistics.

We started the adoption process not fully understanding that for many months, it would be a part time job.  Completing forms, signing forms, notarizing forms, asking those in our lives to vouch on our behalf that we would make great parents, and on and on and on…

Before this I would never have considered myself an LGBTQ activist.  An advocate for sure, but not an activist.  My efforts in the past have been on an inter-personal, one-on-one level.  I reacted to injustices I saw in my local community or ones that I experiences.  I voted for candidates that stand for equality.  I live a very out life.  That was my form of advocacy.