• RT @GreenHour: RT @3BLBlogs 10 fun and easy ways to ensure your kids grow up green http://post.ly/B0yP #
• RT @lgbtlife: Bea Arthur leaves $300K to gay youth #lgbt http://bit.ly/aDhAW #
• Don't be the only one at the water cooler who doesn't have a Brizzly account. Here's an invitation, good for 10 people. http://bit.ly/4w0cPT #
• Say hi to the Green Lantern. http://yfrog.com/9g53879844j #
• RT @gayfathers: welcomes TLA Video as one of the sellers of Fatherhood Dreams – "Gay parents! Yay!" http://bit.ly/3B2Uqz #gay #family #doc #
• The November Novel Giveaway at Book Dads, win 5 recent novels. To enter visit –> http://bookdads.com/OvUR #
• RT @GayUncle: Gunc interviews Lauren Myracle, the author whose book was rejected by Scholastic for featuring 2 moms. http://bit.ly/tsdBD #
• RT @queerunity: Encourages Maine same-sex couples to take Question 1 to the courts, if found unconstitutional marriage will be back! #

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. Here is a photo from a hike we did to the top of Sunrise Mountain overlooking Lake George, NY. Here is a roundup or our posts at Green Dads in October:

Hope everyone is having a great fall!

We spent Halloween evening at my brother Aaron’s house. We had a great time that was dampened only slightly by the rain. Aaron (the pirate) made us a tasty chili dinner and we went out trick or treating afterwards when the rain slowed down to a trickle.

Darius is really into superheros lately and had several choices of who he wanted to be for Halloween.  He ended up choosing Green Lantern because “Green Lantern is brown like me”. There were no Green Lantern costumes available anywhere locally, but fortunately we were able to find one online and ordered it just in time for Halloween. Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

This book doesn’t discuss the facts of adoption or even use the word “adoption”, but instead deals with the feelings behind adoption and wanting to be a family. In this way, it deals with the essential truth of adoption better than any book that focuses on the facts of the matter. This also makes it a good book for reading to very young adopted children who may not yet know the details of their adoption, and speaking as an adoptive father I was unable to read this book to my son without getting all choked up.

Excerpt:

We belong together because, you needed a home and I had one to share.

• Weekend Wander, a weekly roundup of links, events & resources related to books, reading, literacy & dads too. http://bookdads.com/KnYg #
• Secrets of a Christmas Box: Christmas tree decorations come to life, great holiday book to read with kids. http://bookdads.com/JXEp #
• Being a gay dad > video link to three gay dads sharing experiences
  http://bit.ly/gaydad (via @Parentpages) #
• Airborn: ripping steampunk adventure vividly portrays the role even an absent father can play in a child’s life. http://bookdads.com/2nZA #
• RT @Echelon_Mag: LGBT Americans Think, Act, Vote More Green than Others http://ow.ly/wDmf #
• RT @greenparentchgo: Leave No Child Inside Bill introduced in the House #
• Great Video! RT @bikeambassadors: Making environmental/healthy choices fun helps more people do them: http://bit.ly/4AzH0C #
• http://smub.it/dpnt More U.S. Children Being Diagnosed With Youthful Tendency Disorder | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source #
• Are green spaces the key to more sustainable cities? A new documentary says “yes” http://su.pr/7kWv65 #green #fb (via @sustainablog) #

Washington:

Who we are: Approve Referendum 71 is the campaign to preserve domestic partnerships in Washington State. By voting to approve, voters retain the domestic partnership laws that were passed during this year’s legislative session, including using sick leave to care for a partner, adoption rights, insurance rights, and more.

What we need: We need phone bankers to get our supporters out to vote. Washington is an all mail-in ballot state, and we need to ensure our supporters put their ballots in the mail. Also, youth turnout is a critical component of our campaign, and youth turnout historically drops in off-year elections. So we need a lot of help to turn them out.

How you do it: Sign up here to make remote calls for Approve 71. We’ll then contact you for a training, and you can make GOTV calls.

Maine:

Who we are: The No On 1/Protect Maine Equality campaign is working to protect Maine’s recently-passed law legalizing marriage equality for same-sex couples. Our opponents have put the issue on the ballot for Nov 3, 2009. Because of Maine’s early voting election laws, people are already voting at the polls, so we need help immediately to turn out our side at the polls.

What we need: We need you to devote a few hours to Call for Equality. Call for Equality is a virtual phonebank set up so that you can call Maine voters wherever you are. Much of Maine is rural, where canvassing isn’t effective, so we need to reach these voters- along with other supporters- by phone. All you need is a phone and internet connection. No experience required! We’ll provide the training, and all you need is a a few hours to help get a win in Maine.

How you do it: Click here to sign up for a training and your shift. There are lots of times available for your convenience.

Kalamazoo, MI:

Who We Are: The Yes on Ordinance 1856 / One Kalamazoo campaign is working in Michigan to support the City Commission of Kalamazoo’s twice approved ordinance for housing, employment, and public accommodation protections for gay and transgender residents. Opponents forced a public referendum on the ordinance so dedicated local volunteers, led by former Stonewall Democrats Executive Director Jon Hoadley, are working to ensure voters say YES to fairness and equality and keep Ordinance 1856.

Why The Urgency: In the final weeks, the opposition has gone all out with aggressive disinformation and misleading red herrings to try to defeat the ordinance. This includes signs that say “No to Discrimination” (even though voting No actually supports continued discrimination of GLBT residents), transphobic door hangers and fliers, and now radio ads that falsely suggest that criminal behavior will become legal when this simply isn’t true. The Yes on Ordinance 1856 supporters are better organized but many voters who want to vote for gay and transgender people are getting confused by the opposition.

How To Help:

1) Help the One Kalamazoo campaign raise a final $10,000 specifically dedicated to fight back against the lies on the local TV and radio airwaves and fully fund the campaign’s final field and GOTV efforts.

Give here: http://www.actblue.com/page/3-2-1-countdown

2) If you live nearby and can physically volunteer in Kalamazoo sign up here. If you know anyone that lives in Kalamazoo, use the One Kalamazoo campaign’s online canvass tool to remind those voters that they need to vote on November 3rd and vote YES on Ordinance 1856 to support equality for gay and transgender people.

Contact voters: http://www.onekalamazoo.com/tellfriends2

It seems that blogging runs in our family!  Steven’s brother Aaron and his partner Michael live right here in town, and they are Darius’ favorite uncles.  A few years ago, Aaron developed an interest in knitting, and it has grown into a full-blown passion for him.  He’s become an expert knitter who is always trying new challenges; two of our favorite projects have been a teddy bear (complete with separate sweater) that he made for Darius and a pair of socks that he knitted as a birthday present for me.

Now, Aaron has started guest blogging about knitting for a column at the website of our local paper, Fiber Arts: All Things Knitted, Crocheted, Spun, Dyed and Woven. His latest post is about knitting while recovering from a recent operation, “Why pointy sticks and drugs don’t mix”. Aaron is not only a loving uncle to Darius, he’s also serving as a great role model for all the things that men can do while still remaining men, and we hope that his posts encourage more men to give knitting a try!