Family Pride’s Blog

As noted in the Family Pride panel discussion, “The Personal and Political,” held Sunday, July 8 on the R Family July 2007 Cruise, it takes everyday people doing everyday things to bring full equality to all loving families. As a member of the Family Pride team, part of my job is organizing LGBTQ parents and allies to take action. Part of my job is also to build lasting, meaningful relationships with the other “full-time” activists in our community who make this work possible, too.

It’s not often that I get to have breakfast with leading family advocates from three of the four corners of the States. The R Family Cruise gave me that chance, since it’s such a wonderful draw for our families–a place to gather, share, rest, relax, learn and grow as a community. On this summer’s cruise we had more leading advocates than ever before: Arielle Rosen, Family Services Manager at the LA Gay and Lesbian Center; Marci Bair, Program Coordinator for San Diego Family Matters; Kathy Kelly, Executive Director of the MEGA Family Project in Greater Atlanta; and Terry Boggis, Director of Center Kids at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of NYC.

I have and continue to work with all of these fine folks on issues that matter most to LGBTQ-headed families: safe schools, access to information on family creation; marriage equality and relationship recognition; fair adoption; and more. But I don’t often get to strategize about how we as national, state and local leaders can pool our resources and make even greater change. We had a great time at our breakfast meeting, visioning how we could reach equality for families like yours even sooner than we thought. We talked especially about how to better educate our own community and others on the many ways race, ethnicity and national origin relate to and affect our families. We’re excited to partner together to create programming and resources on these topics in the near future. And we also spoke about developing local leaders outside of the “paid few.” We have hundreds of local parents group leaders and others around the country who have varying levels of experience and expertise and we want to spread our resources more effectively to those folks, giving the most experienced in our community the opportunity to share knowledge, tips and skills with those just starting out.

And even though it was AMAZING to spend this time with Arielle, Kathy, Terry and Marci, the week just wouldn’t have been the same if it had all been about those of us who already know each other meeting over pancakes and eggs! I LOVED meeting parents and families I’d seen before and especially those I’d never seen. I heard so many inspiring stories (both good and bad) that reinvigorate me in the work I do. As I head back to the office Monday, I’ll be thinking about the difficulties of family surrogate situations, where the birth mother changes her mind. I’ll be thinking about international adoptions that almost fall through and the worry that causes for prospective parents. And I’ll be thinking about the many high school aged children of LGBTQ parents who daily balance both the normal, everyday love and drama of being in a “regular” family with their added burden of explaining and defending themselves to others.

So my thanks, again, to all of you who came on the boat for sharing your time and your stories with me and the Family Pride staff. And a special thanks to the visionaries of R Family–Rosie and Kelli O’Donnell and Gregg Kaminsky! What a great gift you’ve given us.

And now if I could just shake these sea legs of mine…

Happy Sunday, everyone!
Dustin

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