July 8, 2004 -- WASHINGTON, DC – The Family Pride Coalition is pleased to announce it will recognize lesbian and gay parents with two awards during its ninth annual Family Week in Provincetown, Mass., July 31-Aug. 6.
Family law attorney and activist Joyce Kauffman will receive the fourth annual Fisher Davenport Award for Outstanding Contributions to Our Families, named in honor of Family Week founders Tim Fisher and Scott Davenport and presented by Family Pride and COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere).
Marty Rouse and Scott Sherman have been named the recipients of the Family Pride Coalition’s third annual Families of Courage Award, created to honor those who have taken on the challenges presented by unfriendly courts and/or legislatures and worked to create a better, safer place for LGBT parents and their children.
Kauffman has been a community activist for over three decades. In 1978, she was part of the small group that organized the first Lesbian Mother’s Day celebration in Boston. In addition, she was on the organizing committee that planned the first Lesbian Mothers Conference in Boston, “Children In Our Lives,” which was attended by over 800 people. She is a founding member of the Cambridge Lavender Alliance/Parents, Teachers and Allies (CLA/PTA) group and has served on the Board of Trustees for the Cambridge YMCA and as a member of the Family Pride Coalition’s Board of Directors. She lives in Boston with her partner, and is the proud mother of a 19-year-old daughter.
One of Kauffman’s early legal triumphs was helping to secure second-parent adoptions in Massachusetts in 1993. She currently serves as chair of the Family Law section of the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association (MLGBA) and is the former co-chair of the MLGBA Board of Directors. As chair of the MLGBA Family Law Section, Kauffman has been a key player in public information efforts around the Goodridge decision, in which the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that same-sex couples could no longer be barred from the rights and responsibilities of marriage in Massachusetts.
“Joyce Kauffman’s history of advocacy, education and support for the LGBT parenting community spans decades in our movement for equality,” said Aimee Gelnaw, executive director of the Family Pride Coalition. “In both local and national arenas, she has spoken out and defended our rights as individuals and couples creating families. She has been a pioneer and mentor to many of us and has provided a model of true commitment to equality. The Family Pride Coalition counts Joyce among our oldest and most committed friends and supporters. I am delighted that we can honor her – in her home state -- with the Fisher Davenport Award.”
“COLAGE is proud to join the Family Pride Coalition in honoring and celebrating Joyce Kauffman for her decades of service and leadership to the LGBT family community,” said Beth Teper, executive director of COLAGE. “Her insight, vision and hard work have resulted in far-reaching legal protections and advancements for children, youth and parents in Massachusetts and beyond.”
“I cannot imagine a more special honor than receiving the Fisher Davenport Award from the Family Pride Coalition and COLAGE,” Kauffman said. “To do the work I do is a privilege. The lesbian and gay families I have known over the years are courageously paving the way towards full acknowledgment and equality for our community. Thanks to Family Pride for honoring me and thanks to all of us for the work we all do to put a public face on our families.”
In early 2004, Rouse became the campaign coordinator of MassEquality, a coalition of local and national organizations – of which the Family Pride Coalition is a member – working together to defeat the anti-gay amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution and to elect fair-minded officials in November who will vote to oppose such an amendment. For two decades, Rouse has worked on gay and lesbian issues, as well as labor, HIV/AIDS and political campaigns in New York, Vermont and nationally. An early supporter of former President Bill Clinton, he served in that administration, in both the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 1996, the Clinton White House sent Rouse to Vermont to run re-election efforts. There, he helped Vermont Democrats win a majority in the State Senate, helping set up a legislature that four years later would create civil unions for same-sex couples.
Sherman also has a long history of volunteer service in the LGBT community, working with such groups as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and writing for several LGBT publications, including Genre, Instinct and Out in the Mountains and many others. But when he and Rouse adopted their son in November of 2001, Sherman used the pen with new vigor and passion, turning out a powerful “My Turn” column for Newsweek in 2002. Soon, he was writing for his own newly-developed website, www.gayparentingpage.com, which provides information and inspiration to LGBT parents and those considering parenthood.
In 2004, the Rouse/Sherman family actively campaigned for presidential candidate and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, even traveling to work for him on the ground prior to the Iowa caucus. Rouse wrote about their experiences there in an article that appeared on The Advocate’s website.
“Every day, Marty Rouse and Scott Sherman contribute to our movement for equality – by their presence in political campaigns, by Marty’s strategic efforts to ensure discrimination isn’t written into the Massachusetts Constitution and by Scott’s thoughtful and heartfelt writing on LGBT parenting issues,” said Corri Planck, director of Advocacy, Communications & Support for the Family Pride Coalition. “As our family issues continue to find a place at the forefront of the LGBT civil rights movement, our success will require the courage of more and more families like the Rouse/Sherman family. For all their efforts, the Family Pride Coalition thanks them, and is pleased to honor them with the Families of Courage Award.”
“We are incredibly honored to receive this award from a great organization like the Family Pride Coalition,” Rouse and Sherman said. “Through our work, our advocacy and our daily lives, we try to advance Family Pride’s mission of increasing opportunities and civil rights for LGBT families.”
Family Week activities include workshops and social activities for parents and their children, and social and educational programming coordinated by COLAGE for youth nine years and older. Some of the adventures include whale-watching tours, sand dune hikes, barbecues, beach and pool parties, a family parade and family dances and picnics. Advance registration for both events is $150 per family. On-site registration will be $175. Registration forms are available online at www.familypride.org or by calling (202) 331-5015.
Capital One returns as the presenting sponsor for Family Week. Additional sponsors include Volvo Cars of North America, Crew Creative Advertising, Walt Disney World® Resorts, Wells Fargo, IBM, Orbitz, Growing Generations, Cape Air, Absolut and the Straight Spouse Network.
The Family Pride Coalition is the only national not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to securing equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parents and their families.