GREETINGS FROM THE FAMILY PRIDE COALITION!
THANK YOU FOR JOINING US IN FAMILY PRIDE’S FIRST-EVER ‘VIRTUAL RALLY’
The board and staff of the Family Pride Coalition wishes to thank all of you who participated in our “Virtual Rally” on March 10 to focus more attention on U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings’ misguided and anti-family effort to keep inclusive children’s programming off the air.
We were so pleased and proud to offer you – especially those of you who weren’t able to view it in your local area – the opportunity to view the “Sugartime!” episode of “Postcards From Buster.”
Thank you again for taking action on this issue, and for your continued support of all our families.
FAMILY PRIDE WELCOMES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
The
Links
http://www.advocate.com/new_news.asp?ID=15363&sd=03/09/05
http://www.baywindows.com/news/890705.html (editorial)
http://www.dallasvoice.com/articles/dispArticle.cfm?Article_ID=5797
http://www2.townonline.com/needham/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=203925
SUNSERVE, FAMILY PRIDE COALITION PRESENT SECOND ANNUAL ‘VALUING OUR FAMILIES’ CONFERENCE IN FLORIDA APRIL 8-10
Once again, the
The weekend conference will include more than 20 workshops and panels on a range of family issues, and will include activities for children, educational panels on marriage and parenting laws in
Actress Sharon Gless (“Queer as Folk") was the recipient of the inaugural “
Benowitz is the
Steven Alicea, a 17-year-old LGBT teen advocate from
In addition to the host organization, the Sunshine Cathedral MCC, other co-sponsors of the conference include the National Conference for Community and Justice; Seniors Active in a Gay Environment (SAGE); Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)/
For more information on the conference and the award celebration, go to www.sunserve.org or call (954) 462-2004.
To request information on how
METRO DC LGBT PARENTING CONFERENCE SET FOR APRIL 30
On Sat., April 30, the Family Pride Coalition, COLAGE, Whitman-Walker Clinic and Rainbow Families/DC will sponsor our first Metro DC LGBT Parenting Conference. There will be over a dozen workshops for parents; on-site child care and activities for children eight years and under, and workshop tracks for children ages nine and older provided by COLAGE. We need volunteers to help with a variety of tasks, ranging from morning set-up and registration to child care. If you would like to help out, contact Ellen Kahn at (202) 797-3522 or ekahn@wwc.org. Volunteers can be eligible to have their registration fees reduced or waived.
Rainbow Families/DC will soon have a new home at Whitman-Walker Clinic. In order to help expand the reach, membership and range of programs provided by Rainbow Families/DC, we plan to establish a steering committee to help create mission/purpose statement for RFDC, develop by-laws/operating procedures for RFDC, engage in strategic planning to determine priorities for next three years and more. If you can commit some time to help shape the future of our local parenting group, contact Kahn at the number listed above.
JOIN US FOR FAMILY PRIDE’S FOURTH ANNUAL FAMILY
The Family Pride Coalition is proud to host its fourth annual Family Camp on Memorial Day Weekend, May 27–29 in
This gathering of LGBT parents and their children will take place at the Fairview Lake YMCA Camp and
The weekend-long event will include many activities appropriate for all ages, including tie-dying, candle-making, bug hunting, archery, hiking, boating, swimming and more. Also featured in the weekend’s events are a camp fire, an ice cream social and a family dance.
Families will dine together in the community dining room reserved specially for our families. Families will also be sharing rustic or modern cabins. These cabins go fast, so please register your family as soon as possible. To register or for more information on cabin rates, please visit: http://familypride.org/events/familycamp2005.php
LGBT PARENTS IN THE NEWS
From the
By Daniel de Vise
About 200 people, most of them parents, gathered yesterday at the
The viewing of "Protect Yourself," produced by the school district for use in 10th-grade classrooms, was sponsored by a group opposed to the video. Audience members were mostly engrossed as they watched a young woman on the screen talk about abstinence, safe sex and the properties of latex, then unroll a condom onto a cucumber.
The video concluded to mostly awkward silence. Then members of the audience had their say.
"Condoms are not working," said Walter Harders, an insurance agent who took a turn at the microphone. "Our children are getting pregnant, and they are getting sexually transmitted diseases, and it has to stop."
The school board approved the video for districtwide use in November, adding it to the health education curriculum along with a pilot program on sexual orientation that also has been drawn into the community debate about values and parental rights.
Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, the group that sponsored the presentation, handed out fliers listing elements of the revised curriculum that they deem offensive, immoral or inappropriate. They also circulated petitions urging the school board to discard it.
In the video, a narrator repeatedly reminds viewers to use a condom -- a word mentioned 44 times in seven minutes.
The lesson plan for eighth and 10th grades covers gender identity, defined as "a person's internal sense of knowing whether he is male or female." Tenth-graders also would be taught the concept of transgender, "someone whose gender identity or expression differs from conventional expectations for their physical sex."
The lessons state that "sex play with friends of the same gender is not uncommon" in early adolescence, and that this does not necessarily mean you are homosexual. It includes same-sex couples among the "greater variety of households" in modern society.
Students' parents must sign a form before they can participate in the sex-ed segment of health education class.
Some at the
"They really want a monopoly over children's minds, and they will brook no opposition," said Robert Knight, director of the right-leaning Culture and Family Institute in
Janet Cummings, a Brookeville mother of two students, said she didn't like the tone of the video's narrator or its producers, who, in her view, seemed to be paying lip service to abstinence and implicitly endorsing premarital sex.
"Any young person there knows what's the cool thing that they were portraying, and it wasn't abstinence," she said.
Ruth Jacobs, a physician from
The quietest moment came when Scott Davenport of
"We all share the same concerns," said
The curriculum was developed in 2003 by school district staff and reviewed by a board-appointed committee.
School district policy requires a curriculum that stresses abstinence but also discusses contraception.
Research suggests that this helped drive down teen pregnancy rates, although abstinence-only proponents say advising teens about safe sex encourages teenage sexuality.
"You're worried about a four-minute video and the impact it will have on your kid, when 23 hours and 56 minutes they're with you," said Karen Troccoli, an audience member who works for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. She said she was speaking for herself, not her employer.
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