Family Equality Council bringing Family Weekend to Dallas in November
Tammye Nash | Managing Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com
LGBT people have always been parents — whether to their biological children, to children they “inherited” when they entered a relationship or from a family member, or to foster or adopted children — and formed family units. But in the last 20 years or so, the LGBT community has been putting more effort into recognizing those LGBT parents and families and keeping them safe.
That is the mission of the Family Equality Council.
“We are a national nonprofit serving LGBTQ families and people trying to become a family, grandparents and children of LGBTQ families,” explained Tatiana Quiroga, FEC’s director of national family networks.
“We have all kinds of programs,” Quiroga continued, “like programs to help leaders who are looking to start a parent or family group. We are actually putting together a national network for family organizations.
“These groups that are forming and trying to form — nobody has come in yet to help them network and gather resources,” she said. “We want to give them a place to come to network and share information and resources. We are even offering some mini grants so groups that are not yet registered as nonprofits can still get funds to help with events and organizing.”
Quiroga noted that Rainbow Round-Up in North Texas “is one of our strongest partners.” Rainbow Roundup, founded in September 2012, is now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and a beneficiary of the Black Tie Dinner (See information box).
Family Equality Council also has a family building/family formation initiative that aims to get resources to people to help them understand and explore all the options for building a family, including foster care, adoption, surrogacy, co-parenting and more.
“What we want to do is lay out their options and connect them with resources,” Quiroga said.
Family Equality Council has a national policy team that advocates at the state and national levels. Quiroga said that right now, “there are a lot of right to discriminate laws” popping up around the country that are causing a lot of concern for LGBT rights advocates, including the council.
“Our policy team is very busy right now trying to fight all of that,” she said. “The biggest fear around something like [the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Masterpiece Cakeshop ruling] is that it will become a model and that people will then use it as a jumping board for more and worse.
“We are fighting very hard,” she added. “Obviously, we are also fighting in the areas of foster care and adoption, where some states are starting to limit potential parents.
The fear there is that they will bar LGBTQ people from being foster parents or adopting. They want to keep LGBTQ people from being parents, and that will also keep some kids from finding good homes.”
Education and awareness are two of the main goals of the council’s communication team, and Quiroga said that events like International Family Day, commemorated on the first Sunday in May each year, help greatly with those efforts.
“It encourages families all around the world to come together and celebrate themselves. It is a great excuse for families to get together to celebrate themselves and each other and understand that not all families fit in the mold of Mothers Day or Fathers Day,” she said.
“It’s a great time for people to show that regardless of how we look or how we became a family, that’s what we are — family,” Quiroga said. “We are what we are. We are family, and we are made by love.”
Another way that Family Equality Council helps families celebrate themselves and each other is the annual Family Week, held each summer in Provincetown, Cape Cod, just outside of Boston. This year’s Family Week begins this weekend.
“This is the largest LGBTQ family rally in the world,” Quiroga said. “We’ve been bringing in families for more than 30 years now, and it’s like this LGBTQ family conference. We just take over this beautiful little town at the end of Cape Cod and give families a chance to share their true selves.”
Laura McFerrin Hogan of Dallas said this week that she and her wife, Deanna McFerrin Hogan, are headed to Provincetown this year for their sixth Family Week experience.
The first time we went, Grayson [the oldest of their two sons] was 1½, and we have gone back every year since. This year for the first time we decided to drive up and make a real adventure of it, Laura said by phone on Tuesday. We are in the car and on our way there now.
Laura said that she and her family have met same-sex couples and their children from all over the country — and even the world — during their annual trips to Family Week. “First of all, it’s just a beautiful place, a beautiful town. And at least for this one week every year, families like ours just get to relax and be ourselves.
“You don’t have to worry about having to try to explain your situation. The kids are there with other kids who have families like theirs,” she said. “It’s just relaxing, like no place else.”
This week, Laura said, 7-year-old Grayson will get to participate in the Collage programs, for children of LGBTQ parents, and 4-year-old Griffin will get to participate in the HBO programs. “And Deanna and I will get to participate in the parent cafes, where we discuss things like the state of the union, what’s happening in schools and how to educate our kids’ schools and give us the tools we need.”
And, Laura noted, this year LGBTQ families in North Texas will get a chance to experience all that without having to travel to Provincetown, when the council presents Family Weekend in Dallas Nov. 9-11.
“This is open to all families, and we expect to see families from all across the region coming to Dallas to participate,” Quiroga said. “We are trying to capture the essence of our Family Week in Provincetown in a weekend in Dallas.”
The weekend begins on Friday night with a welcome celebration designed to “give families a chance to relax, mingle and let the kids all meet each other,” Quiroga said. “It is an environment of safety and inclusion, just like in Provincetown, where they don’t have to explain their family to anybody. They can just be themselves.”
She continued, “We want the kids to have a chance to see other families like theirs, and that is important for the parents, too. This is a chance to be somewhere that you can share your stories with people who understand. It is a chance to have that fellowship you don’t usually get in the outside world.”
Saturday will be spent at Resource Center, and will include morning Parent Café sessons, lunch and then an afternoon café session followed that night by a family dance, also at Resource Center.
The weekend concludes Sunday with a private pool party, at a location “rented out by Rainbow Roundup, so once again, we will have that atmosphere of freedom, safety and inclusion,” Quiroga said. “And the MerFriends will be there. It’s a mermaid group! Who knew Dallas had a mermaid group!”
The whole point, Laura stressed, is that it will give the families attending a chance to relax and to be themselves. “When you are there, you finally feel like, here’s a place for me. It is amazing.”
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Family Equality Council’s Family Weekend in Dallas will be Nov. 9-11 in Dallas. Adult registration is $25. Registration for those ages 3-18 is $15, and those under 3 are admitted free. But some scholarships are available, and no one will be turned away because of inability to pay.
To register, visit FamilyEquality.org and look for the Southern Events listings under the “Get Involved” link.
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A resource for Rainbow Families
The Rainbow Roundup, founded in September 2012 and now recognized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was created to promote acceptance in all aspects of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families and allies, and to serve and strengthen the community through social activities, education and connecting resources to individuals.
For information, email info@rrup.org, or visit the organization’s website at RRUp.org, or its Facebook page at Facebook.com/RainbowRoundUp.
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Back-to-school party
The Young Professionals Advisory Council presents Back-To-School 2018, a party to raise funds for Resource Center’s Youth First Program.
The event is being hosted by the Goss-Michael Foundation
at 1305 Wycliff Ave., No. 120, on Thursday, Aug. 23, from 6-8 p.m. The event will feature music by DJ Brandon Moses along with complimentary beverages, light bites and valet parking.
Tickets are $50, available online at RCDallas.ejoinme.org under “Back To School.”
Presenting sponsor is Steve Mies. Event co-chairs are Lacey Brutschy and Josh Lara.
