Tuesday 10 June 2008

Lesbian community?

Took Peaches today for her first visit to the largest park in _______shire (as Jane Austen would have it). Met youngest sister there for a picnic lunch, my nephew is Peaches' age, and the babies happily snotted and gnawed their way through bananas, baby rice cakes (crinkly packet more interesting) and lovingly prepared tofu and organic peas. The tofu and organic peas belonged to youngest sister, not me, as in my haste leaving the house I totally forgot the mashed leftovers earmarked for Peaches, and had to visit Vegan Paradise (our local wholefoods store) to purchase an expensive jar of pureed babyfood.
Youngest sister says we are ladies of leisure. To me, ladies are other people on buses ('mind the lady'). However, sitting there in the sun listening to the wind in the trees, replete, only having to get up every two minutes when Peaches crawled out of sight or towards something she intended to explore with her mouth, I certainly felt like I was doing exactly what I wanted to be doing.
Three other lesbians with children came into the park while we were there, prompting youngest sister to enquire whether I knew everyone in the park. It just felt good to be able to exchange news with these women, have that kind of normal interaction. At one point I realised that youngest sister, as a straight woman, was outnumbered. How many parks can you go in, and randomly get lesbians to outnumber straight women? I love where I live!
In Pasta's class alone, I know of three other kids apart from her who have lesbian mums. This is fantastic. In this city, teachers would be shot at dawn if they openly taught that homosexuality was wrong, but there are all kinds of ways they can promote heterosexuality as the norm, the accepted standard. Even an on-message lesbian teacher might inadvertently give a pro-hetero message to kids, having absorbed so much of it themselves. But in Pasta's class, that's a significant minority, one which can't be ignored. Kids who might get teased have got 3 other kids to use as an example of why they're not weird.
But those other 3 kids have all got 2 mums. As a single lesbian, I am invisible to all except those with finely-tuned gaydar.

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