One of my mother’s friends, after reading about Elton John’s baby last year, expressed her disapproval to me with “He’s gay! First he says he’s married to a man! Now he says he has had a baby with him. That’s impossible.”
I tried to explain the concept of egg donation and surrogacy to her. She brushed me aside like I was slow on the uptake. That was not what she was questioning. She said, “How are they going to (more…)
Posted by Rita Banerji on May 13, 2012
http://ritabanerjisblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/13/will-parent-be-the-gender-neutral-term-for-the-21st-century/
I know I’m going to be the party-pooper at this grande-monde celebration of madre-hood today in India.
But the thing is that I don’t really buy the idea of a ‘mother’s day’ or for that matter a ‘father’s day.’ Let me explain.
This lady, who is my mother’s age, recently said to me, “You know that Elton John singer. He’s gay and he married a man! And now they have a baby. That’s impossible.” I asked why. And she said, “How are they going to raise a baby without a mother? A baby needs a mother.” I told her she reminded me of some of my students, when I taught biology. For the laboratory exams when asked to identify the sex of fetal pigs, the boys would invariably write, “Female, because it has nipples.” Read the full article on Pickled Politics
Posted by Rita Banerji on May 8, 2011
http://ritabanerjisblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/happy-mothers-day-to-elton-john/
