the Desert piece from Pearson Brown:
This weekend my partner and I are headed to Palm
Springs to part-tay, with sippy cups in hand. Our three-year-old
son will be along too as we join an estimated 60 LGBT families
October 8-10 for some wild LGBT family fun, including rubber ducky
races and a wildlife show, all part of Families in the Desert,
sponsored by the Family
Equality Council.
It’s still Palm Springs though, so our first stop
will be the pool at host hotel Embassy Suites Palm Desert, but
instead of dykes with Nerf footballs and boy-shorts, the scene will
be tykes in swim diapers and floaties. After fun in the sun,
there’s family trivia, followed by a great big gay family dinner
and karaoke and dessert. It reminds me of the family vacations of
my childhood, if my parents had been gay and all their other parent
friends were gay.
Times, they are a changing, and this refrain is echoed
by the choice of Family Equality Council to host their event for
the past several years in Palm Springs, home of the Dinah and the
White Party. Just like their choice of Provincetown for the annual
Family Week in August, it’s a sign of the times that our
community’s adult playgrounds are now the playgrounds for our
children.
“It is important to FEC that we hold events in
communities that are welcoming and supportive of the LGBT
community. We also want them to be accessible to large populations
of LGBT parents,” says Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of
FEC.
Chrisler, mom of twin boys with her partner Cheryl
Jacques, is a regular fixture at all of the events, ever playing
the host and making everyone feel at home. If charity starts in the
home, so does community, with Chrisler as the indefatigable super
mom overseeing her amazingly efficient staff and a top-tier team of
volunteers who put on these regional events as well as a series of
fundraisers and community-building events around the
country.
As someone who’s been to more galas, awards dinners
and community networking events than I can shake a plate of chicken
or an Absolute cocktail at, I vouch that FEC holds some of the most
organized and entertaining events out there for the GLBT community,
and it figures a mom is running the show.
Read the rest at sherwired.com!