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The AfterEllen.com Huddle: Lesbian moms

This week, we learned that mothers that also happen to be lesbians don’t screw up their children. Phew! Seriously, though, it’s always great for people who might actually think same-sex parents will create poorly developed kids to hear it’s just the opposite – we actually might even be better parents.

So what better time that the Huddle to talk about our favorite gay moms? Here we go:

Mia Jones: My favorite lesbian mom is Sara Gilbert.

It’s not that I know how well she disciplines her kids or sings them songs from Sesame Street Fever – it’s because when I was growing up, I was convinced that I was Sara Gilbert, or at least Darlene Conner – which may as well have been one and the same person for me. Her swagger, her attitude, her wardrobe of torn jeans and Converse – all of this and her activism lead me to believe she is probably a great lesbian mother.

TheLinster: When the NWBL was alive and well, Sheryl Swoopes played for the Dallas Fury (during the WNBA off season). The games were in a community college gym, so fans and players were close together and many of the mom players and coaches brought their kids to games.

Jordan Swoopes was 8 or 9 at the time and he was a doll. He was all boy, too, and at one game he and some of the other kids got a bit out of control and, apparently, Sheryl recognized her son’s voice. She said something to the coach, then turned around and gave him one of the best mom stares I’ve ever seen. She just cocked one of those gorgeous eyebrows and looked at him – and he sat down.

After the game, she came out of the locker room and sat down beside Jordan while he excitedly told her something. Neither of them was upset. I thought it was so sweet that both of them knew that the problem during the game was over and they had no need to revisit it.

Drummerdeeds: My favorite mombian is Bette Porter. Not because I love her parenting style – I actually find it quite scary – but her level of commitment to baby Angelica. She walked out on a hot date with Jodi, who said she doesn’t like kids. That’s love right there.

Heather Hogan: Francine Peters was love with Katina Choovanski from the time she was 16 years old – but she just couldn’t reconcile her mom’s idea of the perfect family with her abiding love for her best friend. It took 104 issues of Strangers in Paradise, one marriage, one miscarriage, one plane crash, one CIA investigation, one foray into prostitution, one house-sized painting, one kidnapping, two lily tattoos and a whole lot of death and flashbacks and flashforwards and body-wracking sobs and mob business before Francine Peters was finally able to say out loud, “I’m a lesbian.” And when she finally gave into her feelings – for real, for good – Katchoo gave her everything she ever she wanted.

On the last page of the last issue of SIP, Fran and Kat are moms together, at last. And Francine closes the door on us and on Terry Moore – because the man can flat draw and tell a story, but after everything he put them through, he knows (and we know) they deserve a little peace and quiet. (Of course: good luck getting that with a Katchoo toddler teetering around the house!)

Trish Bendix: Photographer Catherine Opie is certainly not your traditional mother.

In her 2004 “Self-Portrait/Nursing,” Opie positioned herself breast feeding, with her bare chest revealing the barely visible scars from a previous branding of “pervert” in her chest. She’s since used her son several times in her work, as her family life inspires her as much as her involvement in the S&M and queer communities have.

Who is your favorite lesbian mother?

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