Council?
I’ve worn many hats in my time at Family Equality
Council–we’ve grown so much! I’m now the Communications
Manager. My job is to find the real stories of LGBT families and
their friends and share them with the world to make sure that all
loving families are recognized, respected, protected and
celebrated.
Why is family equality important to
you?
I knew I wanted to be a parent long before I knew I was gay. After
years of assuming that a family was not in the cards for me, I came
back to that original desire to parent, and now it’s my
mission–as it is the mission of Family Equality Council–to
ensure a better world for LGBT families now and for LGBT families
to come.
What is your strangest work habit?
Jennifer would probably say it’s the fact that I tug at my
eyebrows when I’m stressed. I’d probably say it’s the fact
that I kneel at my desk sometimes, rather than sitting. It helps me
think.
What is your most moving work
experience?
I’ve been managing our communications for the past six months,
despite not officially filling the Communications Manager role
until August. It’s been great to deal in the real stories of our
families’ lives on a daily basis. This July at Family Week I had
the honor of being the first person to tell a lot of our families
that the 1913 law in Massachusetts had been repealed. One couple in
particular, Mia Jacoby and Deborah Twigg, reacted to the news with
particular interest, as they reside in New York State where Gov.
David Paterson recently instructed state institutions to recognize
same-sex marriages officiated out of state. Over the course of a
few short Provincetown days, Mia and I coordinated on whether and
when she and her longtime partner could marry on the Cape. In the
process, we got a call from The New York Times asking to speak with
NY couples planning to make use of the repeal of the 1913 law. I
had just the couple for them, but didn’t know where to find Mia
and Deborah in the throngs of LGBT families all across
Provincetown. Luckily, I was at registration for children’s
activities that day and ran into Mia and Deborah signing their
children in. We talked about the importance of sharing their
wonderful story with the Times. They agreed to call the reporter,
and the next day a fantastic article featuring a Family Week family
was featured in America’s newspaper of record. You can check it
out here. Being the first person to tell that
family that they could marry during Family Week and have it
recognized at home and then working to include their story in the
Times was incredibly powerful for me. Moments like that get me up
in the morning (especially in the dead of Boston winters!).
Do you plan on having children?
As I said before, my desire to parent is at the core of what I do
and why I’m here at Family Equality Council each day. I’ve got
a few years before family planning is going to be a serious part of
my life, but it helps to know that I’ll be fully aware of all the
great resources and community events I can benefit from having
worked at the one-stop-shop for LGBT families—Family Equality
Council.