A mother is a female parent. There are biological mothers, birth mothers, and adoptive mothers. What there categorically aren’t is male mothers. But tell that to the Washington Post which, for Mother’s Day, ran a piece expanding the definition of motherhood to include “queer icons — some famous in the community and some across the world — to show off all the goodness and complexity the word ‘mother’ can hold.” From the piece:

The term has lately caught on in internet culture, with TikTokers and tweeters dubbing Beyoncé and Madonna “mothers.” But “mother” actually goes back much further — to queer Black and Latin subcultures in the 1960s, and it resonates especially for queer communities of color, where Black transgender “mothers” often nurtured young people whose biological parents shut them out.

You know, motherhood goes back even further than the 1960s sexual revolution. Indeed, for as long as there have been humans on planet Earth, women have been bearing and nurturing children. Is it too much to ask for one day of recognition for mothers without political activists swooping in to appropriate their experience and diminish their contribution to humanity?