Top Five Women and Family Stories of 2014

This year has seen a lot of growth, and that includes families! Along with marriage equality has come the LGBT family movement, seeing our lives blossom with the addition of children, both biological, adopted and foster. EDGE's new Women's section has run a variety of features about our families and our lives. Here's the best of the bunch.

Lesbian Mom Kickstarts Donor-Conceived Children's Book: A U.S. Navy veteran and lesbian author of a new, professionally-illustrated children's book for donor-conceived children of two-mom lesbian families has launched a Kickstarter campaign to publish the book. Christy Tyner's book "Zak's Safari" explains their conception story, but she needs your help to bring it to life.

"I assumed that because there were so many two-mom families out there, there must proportionately exist a plethora of wonderful donor-conception books for families just like mine, " wrote Tyner on her Kickstarter page. "I happily began my search, but was soon disappointed. I did find a few books that technically fit the bill, but they seemed to lack some qualities that I look for in any children's book. And I just didn't want to compromise those qualities. After all, this book was extremely important to me."

The book, beautifully illustrated by Ciaee (pronounced ji-AH-yee), follows Zak as he invites the reader on a very special tour of his family. Zak shows the reader how his parents met, fell in love, and wanted more than anything to have a baby -- so they decided to make one.
Read more here.

Lesbian Divorce Skyrockets; Conscious Girlfriend Helps: Whether they are in opposite- or same-sex relationships, women are well known to demand higher relationship quality than men. So with the advent of same-sex marriage comes the advent of lesbian divorce. Now, Ruth L. Schwartz, Ph.D, and her partner of eight years Michelle Murrain, Ph.D, offer ways to "help women love women better" with Conscious Girlfriend.

"Early studies suggest that the lesbian divorce rate is astronomical -- nearly three times higher than the heterosexual divorce rate, and more than twice as high as the divorce rate for gay men," said Dr. Ruth L. Schwartz of Healdsburg, California. "We founded Conscious Girlfriend to help lesbians gain the skills to create happy, healthy, lasting relationships. To our knowledge, we're the first such program in the entire world."
Read more here.

Growing the Flock: Lesbian Pastor Yvonne Harrison Starts a Family: When Yvonne Harrison started her Pentecostal Restoration Temple Ministries four years ago in New York's Union Square area, she wanted to create a church that was progressive and affirming. Now, this lesbian pastor looks forward to adding one more to her congregation of 155: she is seven months pregnant with her first child.

"I am same-gender loving and have been married to my wife for four years now," said Harrison. "We are very committed to our community, and being able to start our family shows that we have made tremendous segues."

Harrison said that her congregants were "excited and elated" about her pregnancy, as their daughter would be the first baby in the new church.

"There is a tradition in the African-American church for the pastor and the first lady to be the church's first family, and they are very supportive of us in that they want us to experience the blessings of God, and set examples for couples coming in to do the same," said Harrison. Read more here.

Sara Gilbert Pregnant With Linda Perry's Baby: Hold onto your hats, fans of "The Talk." Actress Sara Gilbert announced that she is pregnant with her first child with rock star/music producer wife Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes.

The "Roseanne" star revealed the news on Tuesday's episode of "The Talk," during the "Facing Your Fears" segment. The 39-year-old actor explained why she couldn't complete her dare of lying on a bed of nails and having a cinder block broken over her stomach.

"Before we go I just want to say I'm actually not going to do the dare. I really do believe in facing your fears and doing things that make you uncomfortable, but I actually can't do the dare because I'm pregnant," Gilbert said, fighting back tears.
Read more here.

Project Runway Star and Partner Fight for Kids' Custody: Forget about sassy rejoinders from Tim Gunn; "Project Runway" Season 10 star Alicia Hardesty of Original X Tomboy is facing a real uphill battle. She and her fianc�e, Ashley, are battling for custody of Ashley's two sons, Joshua, 7, and Nicholas, 8. And they are asking for the community's help via a gofundme.com campaign.

"Her two boys are grounded in Honolulu with their father [who is in the military]. When he found out about Ashley's involvement with me, he wasn't mentally prepared for the mother of his kids to be in a relationship with a woman. He proceeded to stalk my online social media accounts and threaten me through emails and voicemail," Hardesty writes on the website.

But instead of driving them apart, the crisis brought the women closer. They hired LGBT-friendly lawyer Christy L. Ho of Honolulu, who advised them to move either to Honolulu, where Ashley's ex-husband lives, or Texas, where the boys are originally from, and where they have other family members. So they packed up and moved to the Lone Star state.
Read more here.