Pride in the U.S.A.
by David Seitz
As more and more children, youth, and young adults grow up with LGBT parents, how do LGBT Pride celebrations relate to them and create programming for this growing part of the queer community? I spoke with parents who helped put together spaces and programs for families, children, youth, and young adults at Prides across the country, and learned that as more LGBT folks become parents, Pride festivals are working to offer something for everyone.
Cleveland: Going with Gloria Makes the Festival Fun
Cleveland’s June 21 Pride Celebration included two LGBT family groups in its Pride parade: the local chapter of Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE) and the group Family by Design, a social support group for LGBT parents.
Jaime Bishop, a counselor and parent who facilitates both groups, said Cleveland Pride is an inclusive and fun celebration for families and for children, youth, and young adults with LGBT parents.
In past years, Family by Design sponsored a children’s area, which included snacks, basic first aid, and diaper-changing stations. Though the plans for this year are somewhat scaled back, Bishop says excitement and visibility around Pride help connect new families to both organizations and to each other. Even getting ready for Pride—which can be a rather dull volunteering commitment—in a group of families becomes a fun activity, an opportunity for a reading of Gloria Goes to Gay Pride.
Bishop says she, her family, and friends in both organizations definitely get to make the most of Pride. “We bring our kids in strollers, backpacks, wagons, on scooters, skates, and bikes!” she says. “We plan a central meeting spot after the march to have lunch together. We have matching shirts and a banner that we wear and carry.”
Perhaps fittingly, the theme of this year’s Cleveland Pride, which is celebrating its twentieth year, is “Generations.”
San Diego: Something for Everyone
Slated for July 19–20, San Diego Pride touts itself as the first pride celebration in the country to include a children’s garden. Now in its fifteenth year, the children’s garden features music, clowns, games, arts and crafts, face painting, and karaoke—just to name a few. The garden has designated spaces for napping, breastfeeding, and diaper changing.
Beginning last year, San Diego Pride has partnered with San Diego Family Matters, a program of the San Diego LGBT Community Center. Family Matters provides educational and social resources and opportunities for San Diego–area LGBT parents.
San Diego Pride Executive Director Ron deHarte says the partnership is part of a larger effort to involve community organizations in the festival. “It was just a natural thing for Pride to work with a group like Family Matters,” he says. “They were better equipped than we were and had better access to a family audience to communicate about what’s going on.”
The long-standing presence of the children’s garden, deHarte says, has always been important to him. A longtime volunteer at San Diego Pride before becoming part of the staff, deHarte consistently volunteered to set up the garden. “It was an important thing to me to help create a space where younger kids could enjoy themselves,” he says. “Pride has an energy to it that a seven-year-old may not always find enjoyable or interesting. The kids need to have time to enjoy themselves.”
Now a parent himself, deHarte understands this all the more acutely. “From the very first year, there was a realization that as the community changes, you want to change your event to accommodate those changes,” deHarte says. “It was the growing number of LGBT families that brought that change. When you produce the event, you want to have something that a very wide audience can identify with. There are an ever-growing number of folks who look forward to the children’s garden.”
New Orleans: Love, Acceptance, and Possibly Space Walks
Starting this year, New Orleans Pride (June 28 - 29) will also include a booth just for children, youth, and young adults with LGBT parents. The booth, sponsored by COLAGE New Orleans and with organizational support from PFLAG New Orleans, will feature LGBT family-friendly children’s books. Situated near a playground in Louis Armstrong Park, which borders the French Quarter and is the site of New Orleans Pride, the booth will also include opportunities for art projects as well as space walks.
Presence at Pride is just the latest development in a whirlwind of activity for COLAGE New Orleans, which was cofounded in March 2004 by gay parent Dale Liuzza. The group has expanded from 5 children, youth, and young adults at its founding to over 80 today.
Liuzza says PFLAG has been an indispensable partner in creating a fun space uniquely for children, youth, and young adults with LGBT parents at Pride, purchasing a booth space just for COLAGE. Creating safe space for LGBT families, Liuzza says, is particularly important as sponsors of New Orleans Pride hear anti-family messages from socially conservative groups.
“COLAGE New Orleans will be at Pride all day, with kids and families, gay or straight, to promote family values involving love and acceptance, not hate,” Liuzza says.
And indeed, where better to celebrate love and acceptance for all families and all kids than in this unique American city?
