Contributors

 

El Salvador Vikki Reich  |   Publisher
Minneapolis, MN
Personal blog:  Fredrikstad Up Popped A Fox
On Twitter: @uppoppedafox

Vikki Reich writes about the intersection of contemporary lesbian life and parenthood at her personal blog Up Popped A Fox. She is the co-director and co-producer of Listen To Your Mother Twin Cities. In 2013, she completed the Foreword Writing Apprenticeship in Creative Nonfiction at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and was a 2013 recipient of the Beyond the Pure Fellowship for writers. Her writing has also appeared on Huffington Post, Autostraddle and Aiming Low.

 

Deborah Goldstein  |   Publisher
South Orange, NJ
Personal blog: Peaches & Coconuts
On Twitter: @psandcs

Deborah publishes the blog Peaches & Coconuts and pimps herself out to just about anyone in need of lighthearted, parenting content from a Jewish lesbian. Prior to her pursuit of housewifery, Deborah lived in London and earned a respectable wage in media sales. After she and her partner had their first child and moved back to the U.S., Deborah traded regular paychecks and expense accounts for the very not-for-profit role of mother. She would like to tell you that a corporate salary can’t compare to the satisfaction of writing, but that would be a lie because she still has to pay for two Bar Mitzvahs.

 

Clare Masson  |  Associate Editor/Social Media Team
Albania!
Personal blog: Musings from inside, outside, and underneath
On Twitter: @saysclare

Clare started blogging in 2004 when she realized that no one read those long rambling emails she wrote as a Peace Corps volunteer in Moldova. Somehow no one reading words in the vacuum of cyberspace felt much safer than people ignoring direct messages.  Her blog has changed over time and now is known far and wide (by her family and a few friends).  At Musings from inside, outside, and underneath, she blogs about living overseas–Chile, Cambodia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, and Albania (her current home), her daughter (aka Little Elephant), food, and generally anything else that crosses her mind. Clare started blogging for this site back in 2007, and is very excited for its return.

 

Deb Rox  |  Ad Sales & Business Development
Tallahassee, FL
Personal blog: Deb on the Rocks
On Twitter: @debontherocks

Deb Rox has raised two fantastic sons and is a living example that The Kids are All Right. She blogs at Deb on the Rocks, is founding president of the board at Violence Unsilenced, and runs the creative agency Platform that designs and implements digital campaigns and provides business development strategy guidance for a boutique selection of stellar sites.

 

Sandra Telep  |  Contributing Editor/Social Media Team
Philadelphia, PA
Personal blog: West Philly Mama
On Twitter: @westphillymama

Sandra is a West Philly Mama (not born and raised, but she does spend most of her days on the playground). She is happily married to her best friend and together they parent a precocious toddler and a vivacious baby. A former professional activist turned stay-at-home-mom, she blogs about parenting as a queer, Latina, feminist reclaiming family values at West Philly Mama.

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Alan Shannon  |   Contributor
Chicago, IL
Alan Shannon has written for a variety of publications, including Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times publications, Chicago’s Windy City Times, Viva, AAA Living, and several others. He prefers to write about food and travel, but for the the right price will write about anything. His favorite meal – other than his last one – was dinner with his husband and family at the tiny and traditional Corte Sconta in Venice.

 

Betsy Fife Archer  |   Contributor/Social Media Team
Asheville, NC
Personal blog: Turkey Baster and A Bottle of Wine

Betsy Fife Archer is a writer, artist, mother and soon-to-be personal trainer living in Asheville, NC.  She spends much of her days wiping her son’s butt or face and letting go of the idea that her house will ever really be clean again.  In her spare time (of which there is little), she makes things, takes pictures and studies big words like gastrocnemius and sternocleidomastoid.  She is particularly proud that her son does not pick his nose in public and that he says please and thank you.  She enjoys being in the woods with her boy looking for fungus and an occasional beer to encourage the all-elusive sleep.  Betsy blogs at Turkey Baster and a Bottle of Wine.

 

Bryan Herb  |   Contributor/Social Media Team
Chicago, IL
Company website: Zoom Vacations

Bryan, Co-Founder of Zoom Vacations, Chaired the Board of Directors of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association, appeared as one of nine travel experts featured on the Travel Channel’s hit show, “Vacation Challenge,” and was the South America Gay Travel Expert for four episodes on Logo’s Gay Travel show, Bump.  He was also the host for two gay travel shorts for Comcast.  He is the gay travel expert for several gay online and print publications, including Orbitz, away.com,chicagopride.com, newyorkqnews.com, and more.  He has just started creating online international travel videos for Logoonline.

 

Cheryl Dumesnil  |  Contributor
Walnut Creek, CA
Personal site: CherylDumesnil.com
On Twitter: @lovesong4babyx

A freelance writer and writing coach, Cheryl Dumesnil likes nothing more than laughing at the crazy things her kids say. Her books include a memoir, Love Song for Baby X: How I Stayed (Almost) Sane on the Rocky Road to Parenthood; a collection of poems, In Praise of Falling; the anthology Hitched! Wedding Stories from San Francisco City Hall; and the anthology Dorothy Parker’s Elbow: Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos, co-edited with Kim Addonizio. When she’s not writing or teaching, Cheryl’s hiking, yoga-ing, begging her children to stop the potty talk please, or trying to toss pop flies, without tearing her rotator cuff.

 

C.J. Prince |  Contributor
Maplewood, NJ
Company site: North Jersey Pride
On Twitter: @the1ceej

C.J. Prince is the executive director of North Jersey Pride, Inc., a nonprofit that produces events celebrating equality, family and community in the Garden State. A journalist by trade, she has written for dozens of publications, including Working Mother, The Record, Advocate, Patch.com, Entrepreneur, Institutional Investor, U.S. News & World Report, and TheStreet.com. She lives in Maplewood, NJ, with her two daughters and an orange tabby named Mango Smoothie.

 

Dylan Flunker  |  Contributor/Social Media Team
Minneapolis, MN
Personal blog: Queer Dads
On Twitter: @tcdylan

Dylan writes about being a queer and trans parent over at Queer Dads Blog. He is a Midwesterner at heart, having lived in five different Midwestern states before landing in Minnesota. Having survived the birth and infancy of his first child while in school, he now works with an LGBTQ health advocacy organization. Dylan lives with his partner and their toddler in Minneapolis.

Jan Kaminsky  |   Contributor
Maplewood, NJ
On Twitter: @DrNursePhD

Jan is an Assistant Professor of Nursing and a PICU/NICU/Peds nurse.  She has been in her field since age 7, when she accepted the job as second grade class nurse at P.S. 139 in Brooklyn, New York.  Her research and writing interests include health care and access, Nursing, and the most vulnerable populations of children including gender non-conforming children and their siblings, children of incarcerated parents, and children in the PICU setting.  In her spare time, she is raising her own three children in suburban New Jersey while staying madly in love with her beautiful wife.

 

Ian Chesir-Teran |  Contributor
Hannaton, Israel

Ian Chesir-Teran is a rabbinical student at the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Ian is also a New York-licensed attorney who practices law from his Israeli office in the Jezreel Valley. Ian, formerly of South Orange, New Jersey, is a member of Kibbutz Hannaton, where he lives with his husband and three children. You can reach Ian at ian.chesir.teran@gmail.com.

 

Levi Sable  |  Contributor/Social Media Team
Madison, WI
Personal blog: Queer Dads
On Twitter: @queerjewdad

Levi Sable is the stay-at-home-dad of Jetpack, whose (highly appropriate) nickname was coined while he was bean-sized. Levi’s home base is Queer Dads Blog, where he rants about how precocious his kid is, gender, sexuality, and (very occasionally) politics. In his copious spare time, he is a speculative fiction writer, a full-time caregiver to his adult disabled sister, and a gardener. Levi Sable lives in a small house in Madison, Wisconsin, with his partner, small child, sister, three cats, dog, and two ferrets.

 

Liza Kessler  |  Contributor
Milwaukee, WI
On Twitter: @LizaWasHere

Liza began blogging in 2006, initially as an effort to understand what the big deal about blogging was. Approximately 2 hours after getting a positive pregnancy test and realizing that she didn’t actually know any pregnant or parenting two-mom families in her community, Liza found her blogging voice and began scouring the Internet for other queer families. Liza is the co-author of Privacy in the 21st Century: Issues for Public, School, and Academic Libraries, and her work was published in Mothering and Blogging: The Radical Act of the MommyBlog, and PunditMom’s Mothers of Intention: How Women and Social Media Are Revolutionizing Politics in America.

 

Nicole D’Isa  |  Contributor
Washington DC
Personal blog: Two Hot Mamas
On Twitter: @darthrami

N has been blogging in one place or another for over 15 years. Having lived in the DC Metro area for nearly two decades N lives with their wife, working in the non-profit sector and trying to entertain their super active child. N has been known to post the occasional deep thought on parenting, religion, race, identity, and sexuality, in addition to quite shallow thoughts on the television medium and other pop culture. In what spare time can be managed, N enjoys both performing and listening to music, watching television, and curling.

 

Robert Shaffron  |  Contributor
Maplewood, NJ
Personal site: RobertShaffron.com
On Twitter: @RShaffron

Robert Shaffron and his husband John are permitted to remain in their residence through the generosity of their two magnificent sons, Benjamin and Jordan, in Maplewood, NJ. Robert has been, variously, a playwright, and advertising creative director, stock boy, dishwasher, actor/waiter, and is currently a stay-at-home LGBT activist. He also bakes a wicked lemon square.

 

Roger Rosen  |   Contributor/Social Media Team
Maplewood, NJ
Personal blog: Rogeronimo
On Twitter: @rogeronimo_com

Roger is a husband, step-father, son, brother, uncle, activist, writer, Broadway performer (Fiddler on the Roof), recovering office manager (where he child wrangled upwards of 60 adults) and hernia survivor.  He currently works at Trader Joe’s in Millburn where he can be seen utilizing his BFA from NYU putting kale on a shelf.  Also, he serves on the Human Rights Campaign’s Greater NY Steering Committee as the Volunteer Coordinator for NJ.

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