Happy Mother’s Day to more than 60 of our favorite LGBTQ+ moms
by Curated May 12, 2024 · Gay News / Gay Pride / Gay Rights / The Advocate
Author: Advocate.com Editors
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Out actor and comedian Rebel Wilson announced her engagement to girlfriend Ramona Agruma in February of this year. She welcomed daughter Royce Lillian via surrogate in November 2022. “I am ready to give little Roycie all the love imaginable. I am learning quickly…much respect to all the Mums out there! Proud to be in your club,” she shared in an Instagram post.Allison Russell
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Legendary lesbian rockstar Melissa Etheridge is a proud mother of four — Bailey Jean, Beckett, Johnnie Rose, and Miller. Her son Beckett tragically passed away at age 21 in 2020.
In 2019, queer Australian musician Sia adopted two sons who would have aged out of the foster care system. And in the following year she also became a grandmother!
Drew Barrymore, bisexual icon and host of The Drew Barrymore
Bisexual actor and star of True Blood
Pansexual model and body positivity advocate Tess Holliday is the mother of two sons: Riley (born 2005) and Bowie (born 2016). She recently helped raise funds to fight anti-LGBTQ+ legislation at the Drag Isn’t Dangerous telethon event.
Soccer star Abby Wambach became a stepmother when she married Glennon Doyle Melton–also known as “The Christian Mommy Blogger” for her confessional writing on motherhood, marriage, and faith on the blog “Momastery. The pair met and fell in love in 2016, Melton came out, and they wed in May 2017.
Former Houston Mayor Annise Parker married Kathy Hubbard in January 2014, before the state of Texas was required by law to embrace marriage equality. The couple held a large reception in Houston two months later. Together for more than 25 years, they have raised four children, all now adults; two daughters who were adopted out of foster care, a third girl who came to live with them as a teenager, and a boy they informally took in who had been kicked out of his home for being gay.
Singer Sophie B. Hawkins who fired up queer women with her hit song “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover,” back in the early ’90s gave birth to her second child, daughter Esther, in 2015. Age 50 at the time she had her daughter, Hawkins–who’d split from her partner Gigi Gaston with whom they were raising their son Dashiell, born in 2008–made headlines for using an embryo she had frozen in 1995.
Longtime trans advocate, author, and academic Jennifer Finney Boylan has become a familiar face to those watching Caitlyn Jenner’s E! docu-series, I Am Cait.
Out Iron Chef Cat Cora has four sons with her ex-wife, Jennifer. “Although this is not what we ever imagined, we will always have four incredible reasons to celebrate our years together: our sons,” Cora told People
We want to wish political journalist Amy Walter and her wife, Kathryn Hamm, founder of GayWeddings.com, a Happy Mother’s Day! Walter is national editor for The Cook Political Report
Out actor and funny lady Sandra Bernhard and her longtime partner, Sara Switzer, will celebrate Mother’s Day this year, as they have co-parented Bernhard’s daughter, Cicely Yasin Bernhard, together for more than a decade.
Meshell Ndegeocello is a genre-crossing singer, songwriter, and bassist; her music incorporates jazz, funk, R&B, hip-hop, and rock. The bisexual musician is also mother to two sons: Solomon, born in 1989, to whom she dedicated her song of the same name, and Atticus, born in 2009. Once partnered with writer Rebecca Walker, Ndegeocello has been married to Alison Riley, also her manager, since 2006.
Happy Mother’s Day to the founder of The Next Family,
Carmen Carrera is the proud mother of two children, Ahsia and Leeah, whom she is raising alongside her husband, Adrian Torres, and their biological mother, Stephanie. The transgender model and mom told Out
Acclaimed director Cholodenko (High Art, Laurel Canyon
Jayne Rowse and April DeBoer, both Detroit-area nurses, are mothers to four children, Jacob, Ryanne, Nolan, and Rylee — and, one could say, among the mothers of marriage equality. Their challenge to Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage, which they initially filed so that both could be recognized as legal parents to their children, was consolidated with cases from Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee and heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, resulting in its landmark ruling in 2015 establishing the freedom to marry nationwide. Rowse and DeBoer married in August of that year.
Ani DiFranco is not only a rock star and feminist icon. The bisexual singer also became a mom in 2007, when she gave birth to daughter Petah Lucia DiFranco Napolitano. A son, Dante DiFranco Napolitano, followed in 2013.
When Dot-Marie Jones married Bridgett Casteen in 2013, she also became a stepmother to her two children. The Glee
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A happy Mother’s Day to Emma Donoghue, the award-winning author who adapted her novel Room
Jodie Foster has two sons, Charles and Christopher, with her ex-partner Cydney Bernard. “There’s something so pure about the ways boys love you,” the actress-turned-director said about parenting versus filmmaking.
Janis Ian, a singer known for her hit “At Seventeen,” became a stepmother and grandmother when she married her partner, Patricia Snyder, in 2003. The Grammy-winning artist’s song “The Tiny Mouse” has been turned into a children’s book of the same name, which can enjoyed by parents and children everywhere.
Jennifer Chrisler and Cheryl Jacques have spent much of their lives advocating for social justice for LGBT people and their families. Chrisler led the Family Equality Council for eight years and is now Vice Chancellor for Advancement at UMass Dartmouth. Jacques has been a Massachusetts state legislator and head of the Human Rights Campaign. They are parents of three sons: twins Tim and Tom and Matthew. Chrisler once famously invited Tony Perkins, president of the antigay Family Research Council, to her family’s home so he could see how a same-sex couple actually lived. He didn’t take her up on it.
Roberta Kaplan (left) is famed as the lawyer who brought down the Defense of Marriage Act in the landmark Windsor v. U.S.
Happy Mother’s Day to Kara Swisher, who is shaking up Silicon Valley reporting with her site Re/Code.
Kate Brown, who is bisexual, became governor of Oregon in 2015 after the resignation of John Kitzhaber. She then was elected to a full term and served as governor until 2023, becoming the first LGBTQ+ person to become governor. Brown has been married to conservationist Dan Little since 1997, and together they raised his son and daughter from a previous marriage, Dylan and Jessie.
In 2013, Maria Bello came out to her son, Jackson, then 12, as being in a relationship with her best friend at the time and her now ex–Clare Munn. His response? “Whatever, mom. Love is love.” His reply inspired the Prisoners
A happy Mother’s Day to Mary Cheney and her wife, Heather Poe. The two have been through a lot while starting a family in the public eye, raising their daughter, Sarah. Cheney is the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a political operative. During a forum in 2007, Mary Cheney lectured critics, saying, “This is a baby. This is a blessing from God. It is not a political statement. It is not a prop to be used in a debate by people on either side of an issue. It is my child.”
Country music star Chely Wright became a pioneer in her industry when she came out in 2006. She has also found happiness as a mother, giving birth to twin boys George Samuel and Everett Joseph in 2013 after marrying activist Lauren Blitzer. “I’m not sure if they’ll write country music or show tunes, to be frank with you,” she joked after receiving mini-guitars as gifts.
Many of us have been following the lives of The Real L Word
Nina Jacobson had the last laugh on Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group — part of Disney — after it fired her in 2006 while she was at the hospital where her wife, Jen Bleakley, was giving birth to their third child, William. Jacobson launched her own production company, Color Force, which has produced the Hunger Games
Happy Mother’s Day to Cynthia Nixon, who along with her wife, Christine Marinoni, is raising three little ones. The queer actor, who we first fell for as pragmatic attorney Miranda Hobbes on Sex and the City
Arguably the most famous out mom of all, Rosie O’Donnell has made fighting for adoption rights part of what she’s known for as a celebrity talk show host, comedian, and actress. O’Donnell even plays the role of a social worker on The Fosters,
Patricia Velasquez, the world’s first openly lesbian supermodel, has a daughter, Mia, with her ex-partner, Lauren. Velasquez is also an actress, with a resume that includes The Mummy
The women who helped take down California’s Proposition 8 as plaintiffs in the landmark federal case Perry v. Hollingsworth
A happy Mother’s Day to Hilary Rosen (pictured, right), who is a frequent guest on CNN and an often outspoken Democratic political analyst. Rosen was formerly married to Elizabeth Birch, the onetime head of the Human Rights Campaign, and together they had twins Anna and Jacob. Back when President Obama was running for reelection, Rosen got into a momentary back-and-forth with Ann Romney about how hard it can be to both work and raise a family, saying, “Being a mom is the hardest job in the world.”
Literary agent and out lesbian Charlotte Sheedy is pictured here with her then-13-year-old daughter Alexandra “Ally” Sheedy who would become one of “The Brat Pack” in The Breakfast Club.
Transparent
Meredith Baxter was once America’s mom, playing Elyse Keaton on Family Ties
Tatum O’Neal is known for roles in Little Darlings,
Let’s wish a Happy Mother’s Day to Jenna Wolfe and Stephanie Gosk. This journalism duo has been part of Americans’ living rooms via NBC News for years. Their daughter Harper arrived in 2013, and she was a big part of Wolfe’s coming-out. “This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to us,” Wolfe toldPeople
Kelly McGillis — the 1980s movie star who made memorable impressions in Top Gun, Witness,
Niecy Nash has three children from her relationship with her ex-husband, Don Nash. Their names are Dia, Dominic, and Donielle. Initially, the trio was surprised to learn that their mom had found a romantic partner in her friend of more than four years, Jessica Betts, but they were excited for the couple’s nuptials in 2020. “My children were able to meet Jessica before they knew we were dating, so they were able to meet her and form their own opinion about her as a person. And they all were like, ‘Oh my God, she’s so cool!’ They was exchanging numbers … So, they already liked her,” Nash recounted on Red Table Talk
Queer powerhouse singer Kehlani, who uses she/they pronouns, is raising their two-year-old Adeya in a world of beautiful and “loudly queer” people, she said in The Advocate
Out singer Brandi Carlile married her wife, Catherine Shepherd, in 2012. The couple have two daughters together: 9-year-old Evangeline and 5-year-old Elijah. With her wife, Carlile recently produced and recorded a rendition of the Indigo Girls’ “Closer To Fine,” which was featured on Barbie The Album (Best Weekend Ever Edition).
Brittney Griner, center for the Phoenix Mercury, got engaged to her wife Cherelle in August 2018, and the twomarried almost a year later on June 18, 2019. The couple recently announced that they are expecting their first child together, due in July, 2024.
Adult film actor Stormy Daniels, who is also the star witness in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York, has one daughter from her previous marriage to Glendon Crain, aka Brendon Miller. She is currently married to her fourth husband, Barrett Blade, a fellow adult film actor.
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DFree / ShutterstockAlev Aydin. The couple surprised fans with their pregnancy announcement in January 2021, while also revealing their relationship. The singer filed for sole custody in 2023 after the two broke up.
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Featureflash Photo Agency / ShutterstockCody, 8, and Theodoura, 5, whom the couple tries to keep out of the limelight.
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lev radin / ShutterstockSidney Aoibheann Carlton-Mccauley, in January, 2015.
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Pink has one daughter and one son with her husband, Carey Hart: 12-year-old Willow and 7-year-old Jameson.
“I did not know I was going to have a family. I didn’t picture that for myself because I was terrified I would be a terrible mother,” the singer told PEOPLE in a February 2023 cover story. “But, oh my God, being a mom is the most incredible thing I’ve ever done. It’s shocking how responsible I’ve become.”
Original Article on The Advocate
Author: Advocate.com Editors
