Podcasts for
parents

Your iPod is the latest tool to keep in touch with up-to-the-minute info about parenting, thanks to gay dad Scott Sherman. His podcast The Gay Parenting Show--a free downloadable audio file that plays on MP3 players and PCs--now has a library of more than 20 episodes. Each features news updates and a smart, engaging interview with guests such as writer-parent Dan Savage, marriage activist Evan Wolfson, and mom Ellen Kahn, director of the Family Project at the Human Rights Campaign (which also sponsors the podcast).

Sherman and his partner, Marty (pictured), are dads to 6-year-old Sasha and David, their 2-year-old foster son, but he still finds time to be both host and producer for the podcast. "It's all done in my basement," says the Richmond, Vt., resident, who's in the process of relocating to Washington, D.C. He started the show and the corresponding Web site gayparentingpage.com, he says, because "there are a lot of people out there doing great work that you wouldn't hear about otherwise." One recent topic of interest: How LGBT parents are on the front lines of the fight for marriage equality because of their regular interaction with straight parents. The shows each run 40 to 60 minutes and thus far have attracted as many as 1,000 listeners.

Download current and past episodes at gayparenting.thepodcastnetwork.com.

Once you're online, also check out the new gay parenting forum at TheRainbowBabies.com, scheduled to launch on June 27. "In a crazy moment of inspiration," says the site's creator, Angela Watson, "I thought I'd create a Web site where parents could post their family stories, get timely information, read book and movie reviews related to LGBT families as well as read about legal and social issues." Watson, who lives with her partner in Long Beach, Calif., is now collecting stories from LGBT parents at angela@therainbowbabies.com.