Family Pride’s Blog

Just a friendly reminder, if you haven’t yet voted in the Family Poetry Contest, you better hurry! Polls close in just a few hours, so click to www.familypride.org/poetry to cast your ballot.

In a few weeks, we’ll be releasing a free, downloadable eBook of all the poetry submissions we received. We’ll announce the book on our blog when it is available - stay tuned! Trust me, you won’t want to miss it!

By now, many of you are aware that Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), an historic piece of legislation for the LGBTQ community, is on shaky ground on Capitol Hill. Nervous legislators are concerned that the original version of ENDA, which is transgender-inclusive, will not make it to the White House. Family Pride and countless other organizations are 100% committed to passing the original, inclusive ENDA.

We know - and history shows - that when you leave one group behind, you perpetuate inequality, not move it forward. In the past, lesbian, gay and bisexual people have been pushed out of legislation in order to pass a watered down version. To our lesbian, gay and bisexual readers out there, let’s not play the same games that have been played with our lives. Let’s make sure the original ENDA passes, with transgender inclusion intact! Some in our community will argue that we should pass the non-inclusive ENDA now and come back later to protect transgender people. Let’s be clear: even in the state of Massachusetts - the only state in the nation with marriage equality - employment nondiscrimination was passed without transgender inclusion years ago, which it still lacks to this day.

Family Pride tips its hat to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) for leading the fight for an inclusive ENDA. Visit the Task Force’s action center to participate in this historic fight, taking the side of true equality - not equality for some on the backs of others.

I’m happy to report that 35 more people are now trained to tell their stories, stand up and be OUTSpoken!

This weekend, my fellow Program & Education Associate Ariana Flores and I traveled to Minneapolis, MN to conduct our 15th in-person OUTSpoken training in just 2 years! Our new friends in Minnesota, as you might expect, were extremely hospitable and a great crowd. Representatives from major LGBTQ family and social justice organizations, such as Rainbow Families, Out Front MN, and aMaze, were present. They came to learn new skills and how better to advocate for family equality. Also in the room was Robert Curoe, co-author of Are There Closets in Heaven: A Catholic Father and Lesbian Daughter Share Their Story, a great book about one family’s reckoning with difference and how it’s made them stronger.

Minnesota is a great state for our families, relatively speaking. Through various lower court decisions, second parent adoption has become legal. And even though a marriage amendment is floated every year, it doesn’t pass. The state was one of only two to receive an A from the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in it’s 2004 State of the States Report.

What this means and what I told parents, family members and friends at the training, is that Minnesota is in a great place to set the tone and make even greater change. Just because there’s a statewide policy banning discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression doesn’t mean that people don’t experience this discrimination every day. Once these policies are in place, it’s up to people on the ground to make sure they’re enforced. State officials should be responsive to complaints, but they can’t be responsive unless complaints are made.

The most inspiring version of this story I’ve seen in a while is the Adoption.com case we blogged about and took action on a few months back. (Click here to read the original blogs.) When a California couple looking to adopt found that the “leading” adoption profiles website discriminated against them for being gay, they invoked California antidiscrimination laws, which include sexual orientation. And they won their case. Adoption.com had to choose — to open their services to all prospective parents or stop doing business in California.

I met great people in Minnesota — people who are already out there telling their stories, trying to make change, but also people who know that they can always strive to do this better and with a community of supporters. It’s important to stay active and stay vigilant in Minnesota — making sure that no new marriage amendments pass, that no anti-family legislation is proposed and passed. But it’s also important not to get too comfortable with the relatively positive environment that’s been created. Make it better, make it stronger, make it even more positive for our families and for all people who experience discrimination.

I look forward to my next trip to Minnesota — it was a truly inspiring endeavor!