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<title>Family at Metro Weekly (Newspaper Magazine of Gay and Lesbian Washington, DC)</title>
	<link>http://www.metroweekly.com</link>
	<description>Weekly gay publication of Washington, DC including features on news, arts, politics, lifestlye, film, music, as well as events calendars, classifieds, home ads and free personals. </description>
	<language>en-us</language>
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<title>Metro Weekly magazine</title>
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<managingEditor>editor@metroweekly.com</managingEditor>
<webMaster>webmaster@metroweekly.com</webMaster>
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	<title>Holiday Housing: Avoid holiday&#45;travel headaches with an early plan for pet care</title>
	<link>http://www.metroweekly.com/domestic_partner/family/?ak=4663</link>
	<description><![CDATA[
Family: With Thanksgiving and the winter holidays upon us&#44; it&#39;s time for many to travel over the river and through the woods&#46; And for those with pets&#44; travel schedules can become a huge headache&#46; Taking a pet along for the ride can be expensive by air&#44; prohibited by rail&#44; and cumbersome by car&#46; Besides&#44; does Mister Pugly really want to be dragged to your sister&#39;s house in Tempe&#63; Does your sister even love Mister Pugly half as much as you do&#63; The tried&#45;and&#45;true option is finding a friend to burden with pet&#45;sitting duty&#46; Friendships may be priceless&#44; but straining one with litter&#45;box cleanings or middle&#45;of&#45;the&#45;night howling from a stressed&#45;out hound can be too high a price to pay when there are so many other reasonably priced options&#46; ... (more)]]></description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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	<title>Two For One: A magic number for some&#44; &#147;3&#148; brings a world of challenges in a triad relationship</title>
	<link>http://www.metroweekly.com/domestic_partner/family/?ak=4489</link>
	<description><![CDATA[
Family: Polyamory&#46; Threeples&#46; Triads&#46; Whatever the terminology&#44; there&#39;s a chance you&#39;ve come across three people sharing a relationship both domestic and romantic&#46; With the GLBT community less confined by convention&#44; it may even be more common among gay trendsetters &#38;ndash&#59; though not a monopoly&#44; of course&#46; Try renting 1982&#39;s Summer Lovers for the romanticized&#44; hetero take on tripling&#46; But don&#39;t be fooled into thinking a triad is nothing but a halcyon holiday in the Aegean&#46; &#39;&#39;Just coordinating our calendars is a big part of the communication&#44;&#39;&#39; says Michael&#44; who joined an established Silver Spring couple&#44; Brian and Kent&#44; in 2006&#46; He says the three of them will soon be meeting&#44; Palm Pilots at the ready&#44; to carve out schedules for 2010&#46;It&#39;s not exactly the stuff of erotic fairytales&#46; That communication&#44; however&#44; even when just a matter of scheduling&#44; is crucial to any successful relationship&#46; It&#39;s more so in a triad&#46;&#39;&#39;I&#39;ve got a relationship with Ken&#44; and a relationship with Michael&#44;&#39;&#39; explains Brian&#46; &#39;&#39;They have one between each other&#46; Then there&#39;s our collective relationship&#46; It&#39;s less complicated than it sounds&#46;&#39;&#39;Still&#44; he warns&#44; complications are always lurking&#46; &#39;&#39;For people lacking in confidence or having trust issues&#44; this would be really problematic&#44;&#39;&#39; he says&#46; &#39;&#39;Their problems wouldn&#39;t just double&#44; they&#39;d quadruple&#46;&#39;&#39; Michael Radkowsky&#44; a licensed psychologist who sees many gay clients at his D&#46;C&#46; office&#44; says there are plenty of issues beyond communication that can enter the equation in a three&#45;party relationship&#46; Not the least of which may be that the relationship is built upon a shaky foundation&#46; &#39;&#39;If they&#39;re having a lousy sex life or are emotionally bored&#44; they may seek a third to liven things up&#44;&#39;&#39; says Radkowsky&#46; &#39;&#39;They may be going for an outside fix&#44; rather than solving solvable problems&#46; And they may still be just as bored with each other&#46;&#39;&#39;He warns further that a relationship lacking societal supports can also leave those involved dealing with feelings of shame&#46; For Brian&#44; Kent and Michael&#44; preferring not to include their last names may hint at that sort of shame&#46; It&#39;s something they insist is not the case&#46; &#39;&#39;I&#39;m not overly concerned about societal acceptance&#44;&#39;&#39; Brian says bluntly&#44; conceding that the world is designed for singles or couples&#44; rarely triples &#45;&#45; save for those airborne times when he always gets the aisle&#44; Michael the middle&#44; and Kent the window&#46; Michael has adult children who all three say are supportive&#44; as well as some other immediate friends and family&#46; When it comes to outing themselves as a triad&#44; they play it by ear&#46; &#39;&#39;People definitely come with questions&#44;&#39;&#39; says Kent&#46; &#39;&#39;Not generally because they want this relationship&#44; but they want to understand how it works&#46; People are very curious about it and they know that we&#39;re willing to talk&#46; I show people this is a healthy&#44; normal relationship&#46; Nothing kinky&#46; It&#39;s just a different relationship&#46;&#39;&#39;Michael Payne&#44; a mental&#45;health therapist in Alexandria&#44; notes some of the same cautions as Radkowsky&#44; adding that it would take a special sort of person to be in a healthy three&#45;way relationship&#44; particularly if that person is joining an existing relationship&#44; which would likely be the case&#46; &#39;&#39;There are a lot of things in a triad where there can be opportunities for imbalance&#44;&#39;&#39; he says&#46; &#39;&#39;You&#39;ve got to be really secure in your relationship and in who you are&#46; For the person entering the &#39;diad&#44;&#39; they&#39;re not sharing the same history&#46; It would take a pretty secure person&#46;&#39;&#39; Michael&#44; as the third to join Brian and Kent&#44; says he feels entirely welcome &#45;&#45; not that it didn&#39;t take some work&#46; All three explain that a critical element is keeping each other up to date&#46; Even a conversation as mundane as what&#39;s for dinner can take on unexpected gravity if it&#39;s a conversation that two of the three neglected to share&#46; Still&#44; with all the potential pitfalls&#44; Brian&#44; Kent and Michael all say that their three&#45;way relationship &#38;ndash&#59; one they were all open to but not looking for &#38;ndash&#59; is working out wonderfully&#46; &#39;&#39;It&#39;s easier than I thought it would be&#44;&#39;&#39; says Michael&#46; &#39;&#39;There&#39;s a real give and take between the three of us&#46; I never imagined being in this type of relationship&#46; It&#39;s wonderful&#46; I&#39;m amazed by it&#46;&#39;&#39; He adds that some gay people may be threatened by their unorthodox arrangement&#44; feeling it furthers an argument that gay men don&#39;t respect marriage or are sexually deviant&#46; Conversely&#44; Kent adds that he&#39;s actually somewhat surprised by how little blowback they&#39;ve gotten for their relationship&#46; &#39;&#39;We&#39;ve not really run into a lot of problems because of it&#44;&#39;&#39; he says&#46; &#39;&#39;Booking a king&#45;sized bed for the three of us&#44; most hotels don&#39;t bat an eye&#46; Maybe they just think we&#39;re cheap&#46;&#39;&#39; &#160; ... (more)]]></description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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	<title>Homes for Hounds: If you want a dog&#44; you can bet there&#39;s a dog that wants you</title>
	<link>http://www.metroweekly.com/domestic_partner/family/?ak=4365</link>
	<description><![CDATA[
Family: Dogs are not allowed in the house&#46; That&#39;s a motto Tim Williams had to accept growing up in his parent&#39;s home in Southeast Georgia&#46; &#39;&#39;My mom used to always tell me&#44; &#39;When you get a house of your own&#44; you can keep your animals in the house&#46;&#39; And that&#39;s exactly what we do&#46;&#39;&#39;  ... (more)]]></description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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	<title>Proud Parents: Gay parents&#45;in&#45;waiting have many options for adoption and fostering</title>
	<link>http://www.metroweekly.com/domestic_partner/family/?ak=4250</link>
	<description><![CDATA[
Family: In some places around the country&#44; gay and lesbian people are still banned from adopting children&#46; Likely in those same areas &#45;&#45; and well beyond &#45;&#45; a copy of Heather Has Two Mommies on a library bookshelf can make town elders apoplectic&#46; Fortunately&#44; Washington is not one of those places&#46; And for gay Washingtonians with thoughts of opening their homes and hearts to family additions via adoption or fostering&#44; there&#39;s no time like the present&#46; May is National Foster Care Month and May 28 will see a GLBT Adoption Information Session at the Human Rights Campaign&#39;s downtown headquarters&#46; &#39;&#39;There are a lot of folks in the &#91;GLBT&#93; community who are exploring parenthood&#44; who are thinking about a lot of different ways to build a family&#44;&#39;&#39; says Ellen Kahn&#44; a lesbian parent of two girls&#44; and director of the Family Project at HRC&#46; She also serves on the board of Rainbow Families DC&#44; an organization that brings together GLBT parents&#44; prospective parents and allies&#44; and will be speaking at the May 28 event&#44; also presented by the D&#46;C&#46; Child and Family Services Agency and the Mayor&#39;s Office of GLBT Affairs&#46;  ... (more)]]></description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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