Welcome to Dear Prudence.

I'm your prudence, Janay Desmond Harris.

Today I'll be answering questions from people dealing with judgemental parents, homophobic

in laws, and neighbors who throw dog poop over the fence.

Here to help me out because clearly I'm going to need help with this is fellow Slatester

Mark Joseph Stern.

He's a senior writer covering courts in the law for Slate magazine.

Based in Washington, DC, he's covered the US Supreme Court, Federal Appellate and District

Courts, and state and local courts since 2013.

He is a member of the Maryland Bar, and his areas of expertise include LGBTQ equality,

reproductive rights, criminal justice, and the Supreme Court jurisprudence.

So for a little more personal introduction, three more things about him, he's another

one who's really professional on Twitter.

So I had to ask him for the three fun facts that people are typically asked to share

at Slate when they're hired.

So one, he has an adopted parent named Toro.

Toro is four years old and asks if he's a good boy several dozen times a day.

I was hoping Toro would be around, but he's upstairs right now, so we will not hear him.

Two, he met Tom Hanks while he emerged from a porta-potty just before Obama's first

inauguration.

Tom graciously took a picture with him directly in front of the porta-potty, hopefully it's

framed in there somewhere.

...