QP Board Possible Name/Focus Change

[indiegirl]

Hello Ladies and Gents,

We are in the midst of revamping some boards and titles and I was asked if we might make room for some other folks here on the Queer Parenting board--step-parenting, inter-racial parenting, adoptive parenting among others. The idea is that we could either

*change the name of this board to something along the lines of "Alternative Parenting Situations" "Alternative and Blended Family Parenting" to include a wider scope of parenting situations

*create a bunch of sub-forums under the Alternative Parenting Umbrella that segregated the different types into smaller boards.

Any thoughts, comments or concerns?

I'll leave this up for a couple of days before I talk to Cynthia about it.

Thanks!

Jesse

[robynberkley]

Please don't change a thing. I don't think of queer parenting or queer issues as necessarily alternative and there are few places...actually none that I can think of...where we can talk about AP and GLBT issues in a safe forum. Some of us have tried to start a YAHOOS group but it does not have high volume on it. I like this place just as it is.

[mehndi mama]

I like the "Alternative Parenting" main forum with subforums idea. But if you end up doing that, could we have a Polyamorous Parents forum, too?

[sweetmama]

Please don't omit queer parenting as our own topic!

I would be soooo disappointed if we didn't have our own space here at Mothering. I know this isn't an incredibly active forum but it is exactly the fact the Mothering provided a space for QP that brought me to these boards in the first place.

This is a safe haven, whether we are more "mainstream" 2 parent families that happen to be same gender or poly families or single parents, or newly questioning, or whatever. I have a hard time imagining being mixed in with step-parenting or blended families and still feeling safe or even as inclined to check out the forum as often as I do. We are a distinct community with unique issues that are our own.

If there had to be a change I guess it would be best if there was a larger umbrella with several topics including QP as it's own individual subforum. Still, I think of so many of the forums here as "Alternative Parenting". It seems strange to make this distinction.

[chfriend]

The top of the thread is showing the poll results rather than the option to "vote.

I really don't like the idea of combining those topics. It's helpful to have a place to discuss things with other self-id'd queer AP folks.

I don't personally have a "blended" or "alternative" family. We have a two mom family where I carried our first and dp is carrying our second.

Legally we are both single moms, but I don't hang around the single parenting forum. I don't have much useful to offer step parents because I've never been in that situation.

I have a good friend in a heterosexual marriage who has done an interracial adoption. Her adoption process was much different from my gay/lesbian friends. It was much more straightforward, with many fewer obstacles (even though she and her beloved live off the grid with no running water in their house). The issues are just different.

[Arduinna]

I voted please don't change a thing. FOr all the reasons already listed by others.

[LayneA]

Please don't lose the queer parenting section!

I have been searching all over the web for a forum of mothering-type-queer-parents and there iis a real lack of community. I was so glad to see this board.

[Nicke]

The poll will not allow me to vote. It just shows me the results (and I am *sure* I have not voted).

I would like to see it stay the same way, for all of the reasons posted above.

[indiegirl]

I fixed the poll--vote away!

[Nicke]

Thank you!!

[Cynthia Mosher]

From the poll results and sentiments voiced I can see that most of you want to keep the QP board a stand alone topic board and I can appreciate your reasons.

What I would like to do is maintain it as a separate board but as a subforum within Parenting Issues. That will give you the separateness that you've always had but will also help us in our need to reorganize and compact things where we can. It will be listed on the main page as one of Parenting Issues' subforums (and I'll be doing the same with Single Parenting).

[Amazlilith]

I really think going under Parenting Issues is great. I would prefer that the poly parents have their own place. I don't agree that Queer parenting and Poly Parents are the same thing and truly don't believe that it should be part of QP Board.

[mehndi mama]

I would prefer that the poly parents have their own place. I don't agree that Queer parenting and Poly Parents are the same thing and truly don't believe that it should be part of QP Board.

ITA - I would bet that there are plenty of polyfolk on MDC who wouldn't have a clue to post on the QP forum! (I was VERY iffy about it myself, and still don't post hardly at all because it seems that there would be little to no response to questions directly relating to poly)

[DebraBaker]

I think, perhaps, it could be changed slightly to reflect straight people who occasionally lurk or post (in a supportive manner) when the subject is specific to gay issues.

I have always been welcomed and included when I posted over there so it isn't an issue of exclusivity or anything.

DB

[JenInMpls]

What a fabulous forum

I am a new participant and have to share how excited I was to find (1) an online community here at Mothering and (2) a queer parenting board! The "Lesbian Moms" board at another online parenting site did not speak to me in any way, shape or form.

I believe that queer families have a whole host of unique challenges to deal with and a discussion area that serves these families needs to be equally as unique - this is why I voted "don't change a thing"!

Best to you all,

Jen

[maisydaze]

Please don't change a thing!

I am new to this board and was so excited to find out that there was a queer parenting board for attachment parenting families. I don't know of any other forums like this! I bet that there are a lot of other queer parents out there that don't know this board exsists.

Thanks!

[jecaly]

i'd like to chime in as someone who would welcome a place to discuss poly and other alternative parenting issues on a separate board from queer parenting which, i agree, should have its own board! this is a pretty old discussion, but i'm not seeing the alternative parenting board discussed below. are there still plans for it?

*j

[CyndiN]

I agree with others that Queer Parenting should stay on its own and not be merged into "alternative." And thank you for saying "Queer" instead of "Gay" to include those of us who are one but not the other.

But a place for all the other issues mentioned would be an excellent idea. You seem to already have that sort of thing under "Tribes" so perhaps that would be a good place to put the "alternative parenting" forums, so that Tribes was not just geographic for sub-forums.

My personal interests would be in disabled, poly, and Jewish parenting. But there could be so many more. And it would be great to be able to find them more easily than having to go through the entire Tribes forum.

Cyndi

[meemee]

hi - i just wanted to add that i really find the name queer parenting v. offensive. i really dont have the right to say that since i am heterosexual but it seems to me that that is exactly the kind of labeling my gay and lesbian friends are fighting against and the exact same thing i dont want to pass on to my dd.

queer to me is a negative word impling deviant, suspicious or eccentric behaviour and its not the kind of thing i want to think of my gay and lesbian friends as.

i would much prefer the term gay/lesbian parenting and a stand alone board.... but then thats just me. thats why i decided not to vote because it did not give me the option to choose a different name.

[AdinaL]

Thanks for your input meemee!

In my experience, the word queer has been claimed by the GLBT community. To the point that frequently it is called the GLBTQ community. Gay/Lesbian parenting doesn't include the transgender community. Queer is seen as a more inclusive name, not a less inclusive one.

Welcome to MDC - please head over to Pleased to Meet You and post an intro!