Thursday, October 29, 2009

Which TV Shows have QueerSpaen characters?

Here is the list I have compiled so far of current TV sitcoms and dramas. Please comment to add more. QueerSpawn Characters on TV...

Til Death – FOX
Doug Von Stuessen – lesbian mother
Timm Sharp

Nurse Jackie – Showtime
Dr. Fitch Cooper – lesbian mothers
Peter Facinelli

Glee – FOX
Rachel Berry – Gay Dads
Lea Michele

Modern Family
– ABC
Baby Lilly

Vampire Diaries
– CW
Caroline Forbes – Gay Dad
Candice Accola

Private Practice
- ABC
Dr. Addison Montgomery - Lesbian mother
Kate Walsh

Degrassi: The Next Generation
Ashley Kerwin - Gay Dad
Melissa McIntyre

Shameless
The Gallagher Kids - Lesbian Mom
Emmy Rossum

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Joe Valentine is a QueerSpawn



Joseph "Joe" John Valentine is a Major League Baseball pitcher who is currently a free agent. He is a 1997 graduate of Deer Park High School in Deer Park, New York, where he led the Falcons to the State championship title game.

Best known for his pitching with the Cincinnati Reds, then went on to the Astros and then the Brewers. Valentine was granted free agency by the Brewers. He was not picked up by any major league baseball team, so he went to pitch in Japan with the Chunichi Dragons (he never actually pitched for them; he pitched for their farm team). They released him in June, and the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League picked him up. In 37 relief appearances with them, he went 4-2 with a 1.54 ERA, striking out 37 batters in 35 innings of work.

Valentine started the 2008 season with the Ducks, making 14 appearances with them, saving six games and posting a 2-1 record and 1.62 ERA. In May, the Phillies signed him and assigned him to their Double-A affiliate, the Reading Phillies. After his release in June, Valentine re-signed with the Ducks, but on August 4 his contract was purchased by the Cincinnati Reds, where he was assigned to Double-A Chattanooga. He became a free agent at the end of the season.

So far in his big league career, Valentine is 2-4 with a 6.70 ERA.

During his time with the Reds, Valentine was the subject of a lengthy article about being raised by two lesbians, Deb Valentine (his biological mom) and Doreen Price, who raised him since his birth in Las Vegas in 1979. The couple has been together
for over 30 years. Joe never knew his dad and he has grown up as asupportive son who loves the two women who raised him. Joe was active in baseball and pageants while growing up. He married his high school sweetheart.

Valentine says, "It’s no different than having a mother and father. These are the two women who raised me, and they are wonderful people. It’s just not a big deal to me. Why should it be?"

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Rebecca Walker is a QueerSpawn


Rebecca Walker was born in 1969 in Jackson, Mississippi, to an interracial "movement" couple who married in defiance of Mississippi's anti-miscegenation laws. (Anti-miscegenation laws made it illegal for people of different races to get married.) Her famous book, Black White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self, is her own story of struggling to understand her mixed identity. In addition to writing, she is the co-founder of Third Wave Foundation, a national philanthropic organization for women aged 15-30 devoted to cultivating young women's leadership and activism. Rebecca is considered one of the most audible voices of the young women's movement, and was named by Time magazine as one of the fifty future leaders of America. Rebecca identifies as bisexual and is estranged from her lesbian mother, Alice Walker, a well-known author, most famous from her book, The Color Purple. In December 2004, Walker gave birth to a son, Tenzin, whose arrival is the subject of her new memoir, Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood after a Lifetime of Ambivalence. Walker currently lives with Tenzin and his father Glen in Hawaii. Her official Web site is http://www.rebeccawalker.com

Monday, October 12, 2009

Katharine Symonds Furse was a QueerSpawn



Katharine and her three sisters were the children of famed gay English essayist and historian John Addington Symonds (1840-1893). Born in Clifton, Bristol, young Katharine spent most of her childhood in Davos, Switzerland, where Symonds had relocated the family in search of a better climate for his tuberculosis. In 1900, she married painter Charles W. Furse, who also suffered from tuberculosis. They had two sons, Peter and John Paul. Charles Furse died of tuberculosis in 1904. Katharine led the first VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Corps to France in October 1914 and headed the British Red Cross Women's VAD Department from 1915 to 1917. She was Commandant in Chief of the Joint Women's VAD Department in 1916, and the first head of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRENS) in 1917. She remained the head of the WRENS until they were demobilized in 1919. After the war, Katharine Furse continued her pioneering work in women's service. She worked closely for years with the Girl Guides and for ten years was Director of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. She died in London in 1952.