northwest
Real Families Get Real Facts
Family Pride Coalition comes to Portland
by Malka Geffen
ox News may have been up in arms about
the 200 queer parents and their families
who attended this year’s traditional White
House Easter Egg Roll. But the executive
director of Family Pride Coalition, which
coordinated their attendance, knows something
about families that conservatives don’t: There’s
nothing normal about a traditional family.
“Only 23 percent of children in this country are
currently being raised by a mom and a dad," Jennifer
Chrisler said. “The point being that this rose-colored
view of a ‘traditional family’ that’s being held onto by
the religious right is not the reality of what our fami
lies look like. We should spend time making all fam
ilies strong instead of legislating back to the ’50s."
Chrisler delivered the presentation “Real
Families, Real Facts: The Tmth About LGBT
Families and Politics” June 29 at Portland’s Q Center.
She spoke about how our families are being used in
politics and what her Washington, D.C.-based
coalition is doing in response on a national level.
“Portlanders, like many in this country, are facing
a time when the conservative right uses LGBT fam
ilies as fodder in their political battle," said Chrisler.
“It’s important that they know how to speak out and
what the truth is about gay and lesbian parents and
how to share that with friends, family and communi
ty members—anyone and everyone who will listen!”
The coalition is the only national nonprofit
organization dedicated to the equality of queer
families. It supports nearly 200 membership-based
parenting groups and has a base of 35,000 support
ers nationwide. For 25 years, the coalition has
focused on advocacy, education and support.
“Our No. 1 goal is to ensure equality for LGBT
parents,” said Chrisler. “We do that by fighting
against anti-LGBT family legislation, educating the
American public about gay and lesbian families and
making sure that LGBT parents can share their
stories and the real facts about how the children
raised by LGBT parents fare.” The coalition also
works to create positive environments for our
children in schools and positive workplace policies
to protect our families.
Q Center hosted approximately 40 people for a
meet-and-greet cocktail party, followed by Chrisler’s
presentation and an extensive question-and-answer
period. “The Q & A was the best part!” says Barb
Bloom, Equity Foundation board member. She and
her partner, Gabrielle Groshong, who have two
children, sponsored the event. “We are really
supportive of what Jennifer is doing and what
Family Pride Coalition is all about. We wanted to
bring them to Portland and help spread the word
about the organization.”
According to Chrisler, attendants’ questions
ranged from “What does the research actually say
about children raised by LGBT parents?” to “How
can we make our leaders stand up for these issues?”
to “What can we do here in Portland?”
“Parents in particular are very passionate about
wanting to protect their children,” she said. “They
need the resource? and information to do it well.” Fanii'y Pride Coalition executive director Jennifer
Chrisler address issues facing families in
Chrisler talked about parents becoming trained
Portland and nationally.
on how to communicate their families’ stories,
about joining parent-teacher associations, about
on a national level. “We go about our day-to-day
writing letters to editors whenever a published arti
lives, but we could easily lose what rights we do
cle doesn’t accurately reflect their lives and about
have," he said. He and his partner, Jeff Knapp, have
working with Family Pride to lobby legislators.
hosted three foreign exchange students and are
“We clearly face a vocal, well-organized and well-
involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters of
funded minority of people working very hard to
Metropolitan Portland. “I’d love to see if people who
spread misinformation and lies about gay and lesbian
are most affected by this will band together. 1 person
parents,” said Chrisler. "Parents tend to be very busy
ally want to be aware on behalf of my clients.”
people, so figuring ways to involve them in this civ
Gwenn Baldwin, Q Center board co
il rights battle takes creativity so they don’t have to
chairwoman, added: “Jenn is a wonderful speaker—
take too much time from their home life.”
very passionate about what’s at stake: our families
One way the coalition makes it easier for parents and what’s best for children. That was really the
to get involved is through its publication 52 Ways to
theme: If everyone just kept the needs of children
be Outspoken, which encourages parents to send birth
and their best interests in mind, no one would want
announcements and honor roll announcements and
to stop marriage, adoption, foster care or anything
to submit op-ed pieces about how discrimination
that supports families and caring for children.”
hurts them and their children. The coalition also
Baldwin says she hopes this event will be the
trains parents to be ready to speak to the media and
beginning of a speaker series at Q Center. “We’d
like to build a strong family voice.” ©
helps them organize lobby days and rallies.
Mark Clift, a Portland accountant who attended
the Q Center event, said it’s important to support a
For more information about FAMILY PRIDE
group like Family Pride because it watches out for us
C oalition visit www.familypruk.org.