Zelda)
We’re very excited that Huffington Post has published an op-ed written by Alisa Surkis, who with her
wife Colleen Gillespie brought the idea of organizing LGBT families
to attend the White House Easter Egg Roll to Family Equality
Council (then Family Pride) in 2006. Alisa and Colleen’s simple
but brave and bold idea to raise the visibility of LGBT families
has resulted in some of the most extensive, positive media coverage
of our families ever.
Here’s an excerpt from the op-ed. Click here to read it in full. And
share it with your friends — the more people who read and
comment on it, the more likely it is to stay on Huffington Post for
all to see!
“As lesbians, Colleen and I had watched as our community became
a favorite wedge issue. As mothers, though, we were not prepared to
have the head of our nation’s educational system sending the
message that our daughter should keep her family in the closet.
We’d grown complacent over the years of attacks on our community,
but now they were messing with Ella, and that was not
okay.
“We wanted Ella, and all kids from LGBT families, to feel that
they could be open about and proud of their families, and that is
where the Egg Roll came in. We realized that organizing a group of
our families to attend as a visible group would not only be a
wonderful experience for our kids, but would be a great way to
introduce our families to people who had heard about us more than
seen us, and for some of whom I think we were not quite
real.”
To see an archive of 2006 Egg Roll coverage featuring LGBT families
and an ongoing list of current coverage, check out https://dev-fec.pantheonsite.io/action/eggroll09.