Enough About Marriage!

I was just looking back through recent posts, and realized that for the past month I've mostly been blogging about marriage equality. This is, primarily, because marriage equality is what has been in the news. But I have spent my career advocating for non-traditional families, and as the marriage equality movement fights fiercely to allow same-sex couples to marry and, therefore, to be included in the "traditional" family framework, it is my pledge and my goal to continue advocating for non-traditional families -- especially non-traditional families with children. My mantra, increasingly, is "marriage isn't my issue" -- so why so many blogs about marriage equality? I was reminded last week, at the annual "Lavender Law" conference, of how much we are defined by the media. If the media is interested in kids, we talk about our kids; if the media is interested in where we take vacations, we talk about where we take vacations; if the media is interested in marriage, we talk about marriage. As a blogger, it is tempting to look at what's "in the news" and talk about that. But I am now taking a personal, Wald Law, blogger pledge: I will not be talking about marriage equality again until and unless there is some MAJOR news (like winning marriage equality in the California Supreme Court, which we may do next year due largely to the heroic efforts of my friend and colleague Shannon Minter at the National Center for Lesbian Rights). Otherwise, I am going to try to avoid being swept whichever way the media wind is blowing, and stick to my basic Wald Law tenet: we at Wald Law are here to represent the full diversity of contemporary families, be they gay, straight, partnered, single, or parenting in trios and quartets. We are here to talk about adoption; assisted reproduction; and the trials and tribulations of divorce outside the boundaries of the law. We are here to talk about what others are not talking about. If I forget, please remind me....