Inaugural Family Pride Zone for LGBT parents, children will include Cub Scout troop selling popcorn, which may be unprecedented
A young participant high-fives spectators on Cedar Springs during the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade in 2012. This year, LGBT families will have their own Family Pride Zone in Lee Park. (Chuck Marcelo/Dallas Voice)
DAVID TAFFET | Staff Writer
A Cub Scout troop selling popcorn will be part of a new Family Pride Zone section of the Festival in Lee Park on Sunday.
Cub Scout mom Kim Bowles, who’s organizing the popcorn fundraiser, which will also include a life-size Candyland game, said in addition to raising money and having fun, she wants to expose Scouting to a wider audience and teach children in her troop a lesson about diversity.
“There are so many families out there different from the stereotype of the white picket fence,” she said.
But Bowles said she and others from her Fort Worth-area Cub Scout troop won’t go in without some trepidation. Some parents made it clear they wouldn’t be participating, she said, and she’s not sure what the reaction from higher-ups will be.
“We’re waiting for the other shoe to drop,” she said.
Earlier this year, the Irving-based Boy Scouts of America lifted its ban on gay Scouts but continues to prohibit gay and lesbian adult leaders. Since then some anti-gay churches have pulled their support for Scout troops, including one in the Fort Worth suburb where Bowles’ troop is from.
The Cub Scout troop will be one of many booths and attractions in the Family Pride Zone, a separate area of Lee Park that will be cordoned off for the first time for LGBT families and their children.
“We hope to change the face of the LGBT community, to show more diversity and to show that we have families, too,” said Tempest Redding, who organized the Family Pride Zone along with her fellow HRC Family Project co-chair, Dallas Voice Publisher Leo Cusimano.
Cusimano said the event is important for LGBT families because parents benefit when they network and it’s helpful for their kids to see other families like theirs.
Michael Doughman, executive director of the Dallas Tavern Guild, which organizes Pride, said he’s unsure whether other cities have created similar family zones during Pride, but he said compared to other major metropolitan areas, North Texas has a high percentage of same-sex couples raising children.
“The response since we put this on the table has been really tremendous,” he said. “I’m expecting a significant turnout, and I think this is going to become a very strong and viable part of Pride.”
Family Pride Zone attractions will include face painters, bounce houses, caricature artists, sack races and cake walks.
Vendors will present information for families but also for those planning families.
Circles of Care is one of the largest private, nonprofit organizations that provides adoption services and foster care in Texas. Jessica Killion will be on hand to explain how the process works.
“There are foster children every day that need homes,” she said. “We’re looking for people who desire to better the lives of children who come into care.”
She said the passion needs to be there because getting licensed is an extended process.
“And these children are fragile,” she said. “They need attention and support. All are educationally delayed in some way or another.”
She called fostering a special gift you can give and especially welcomed members of the LGBT community to help a child that needs you.
“It’s the most special gift you can give,” she said.
She invited anyone who’s thought about fostering or adopting to stop by to discuss it.
Marcia Stuhler is a photographer who specializes in photographing LGBT families. Helping her will be her daughter who started a gay-straight alliance at her Keller high school.
“I’ll be wandering, taking pictures and family photos,” she said, while her daughter and friends from her GSA staff the booth.
Families are welcome to stop by to get family portraits and fun shots taken.
“I’m determined to change the world one photo at a time,” she joked.
The Family Pride Zone will have two entrances — from Lee Parkway where the $5 admission will be charged and inside the park across the bridge next to Arlington Hall. People already in the park will not have to pay an additional $5 to cross into the family area.
No coolers and no alcohol will be allowed into the Family Pride Zone and appropriate attire will be required for adults.
The Family Pride Zone will be open noon–8 p.m.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 13, 2013.