GREETINGS FROM THE FAMILY PRIDE COALITION!

We write to you this week from Family Pride’s 10th annual Family Week in Provincetown!

At this writing, we have 400 registered families, and our LGBT-headed families have quite literally taken over the town! Commercial Street is lined with strollers and wagons and LGBT parents, their children and in several cases, extended family members. Local residents and business owners repeatedly share with our staff that children attending Family Week are the most nurtured and well-behaved children they see all year. 

This week, Family Pride has also announced its new awareness campaign, “Real Families, Real Facts.” The response to our new initiative has been overwhelmingly positive, and parents and our supporters from all over the country are eager to get more involved. We’ll be sharing more information about this campaign with you in the coming weeks.

There are so many events and activities happening this week that it will be impossible for us to report on them all, but we’ll share a few of the highlights.

After a busy day of registration and orientation on Saturday, we screened the just-released “transparent,” a documentary about female-to-male transgender parents who had given birth to their children.

On Sunday, our annual Family Parade was a sight to see – beautiful children and parents with their wonderful signs processed down Commercial Street, and circled back down Bradford, concluding at Bas Relief Park for an impromptu rally led by Family Pride’s Executive Director Jennifer Chrisler.

We gathered again in Town Hall on Sunday evening for “The Incredibles” and a special screening of the banned “Postcards from Buster” episode, “Sugartime!” for our movie night and pajama party. We were fortunate to be joined by the “Buster” family, Karen Pike, Gillian Pieper and their children, James, Emma and David. The full house gave the Pieper/Pike family an extended standing ovation, expressing their appreciation for their advocacy and courage.

Children have enjoyed yoga, dance and arts and crafts while their parents have participated in educational workshops about creating safe schools, internet safety for our children, legal protections for our families and various other parenting issues.

On Monday evening, hundreds of folks gathered at Herring Cove beach for a campfire and s’mores fest. Thanks to the family sponsors of this event, the Fisher Davenport family, there were four campfires, glow-in-the-dark necklaces and lots of s’mores! Tim Fisher and Scott Davenport are the founders of Family Pride’s Family Week, and as we celebrate our 10th annual event, we thank them for their incredible vision and continued generosity.

On Tuesday afternoon, we hosted our “Honoring Our Heroes” event, and our Family Pride advocacy town hall meeting. Family Pride and COLAGE presented the fifth annual Fisher Davenport Award to 18-year-old activist Sol Kelley-Jones of Wisconsin. The daughter of lesbian moms, Sol is an accomplished activist and we both Family Pride and COLAGE were proud to honor her. The Family Pride Coalition presented our fourth annual “Families of Courage” Award to the Pieper/Pike family for standing up following the actions of U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who condemned the episode and successfully pressured PBS to pull “Sugartime!” Special Family Pride video presentations were screened during the event, and received tremendous audience response. We again applaud Sol and the entire Pieper/Pike family for their courageous contributions to all our families.

Our first-ever advocacy town hall meeting featured Pieper, Pike, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) staff attorney Michele Granda, openly gay father and Massachusetts State Senator Jarrett Barrios and Family Pride’s Executive Director Jennifer Chrisler. Corri Planck, Family Pride’s deputy executive director, moderated the panel. Each of the panelists were compelling and passionate as they shared stories of their own families, and encouraged LGBT parents to become more active advocates for themselves and their children.

On Wednesday evening, more than 400 folks had dinner together at the annual fish fry at the Provincetown Inn. It’s clear that Family Pride’s Family Week continues to serve as an affirming place for LGBT parents and their children. We have families from more than 35 states and five countries.

None of this would be possible without the generous support of our Family Week sponsors, including IBM, Capital One, Volvo Cars of North America, Growing Generations, Crew Creative Advertising, WALT DISNEY WORLD ® Resorts, Bay Windows, Cape Air, R Family Vacations and Q Television.

If you attended Family Pride’s 10th annual Family Week, thank you for joining us. If not, begin making plans now to join us next year!