Lesbian music icon Melissa Etheridge shared her thoughts on the meaning of family this morning on iHeart Radio’s podcast ‘Spit.” Photos of the “23 and Me” Podcast featuring musician Melissa Etheridge taken on-location at iHeartMedia Offices, NYC on June 20, 2018. provided by © Matthew Eisman for iHeartMedia.
The iHeart Radio podcast explores the question, is family something we are born into or something we create?
Etheridge, who has four children from two different women and sperm donors, talks about creating her family, and how the stories we’ve been told could be limiting us. Here are some highlights.
“You can make family. Family is love. That’s the bond we have, and blood is a whole different story.” (11:21)
“Often we [the LGBTQ community] have had to make our own families anyway – we were shunned from our families. We have that, and were fine with that.” (11:33)
On having a family if you cannot biologically create one: “It’s okay. There is no shame in this. We are creating life and loving life.” (11:51)
“When you raise a baby. And you sit that baby in your lap day after day and year after year, they learn to smile your smile… I am in them even though it is not of the blood. It is because of the closeness, the stories.” (22:41)
