FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“I would love to be a beacon of hope and peace for people who are going through what my family went through so many years ago.”
Washington, DC- Family Equality Council®, the national organization which connects, supports, and represents the estimated three million parents who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer in the United States and their six million children of all ages, today announced that bestselling author and award-winning performer, Alison Wearing will join its Outspoken Generation® Program, which empowers those with LGBTQ parents to speak out for their families and other families like theirs.
“I would love to be a beacon of hope and peace for people who are going through what my family went through so many years ago,” Wearing said. “I am delighted to add my voice to the Family Equality Council’s Outspoken Generation Program as a way to help those working for equality and celebrate the beauty of rainbow families. I love sharing my story with people who might be inspired, uplifted and empowered by it.”
Alison’s latest memoir and performance piece is the award-winning Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter, which tells her story of growing up with a gay father in Peterborough, Ontario in the 1980s. Alison’s father came out when she was 12-years-old and she traveled back and forth between his world in Toronto and her quiet life back in Peterborough. When she would return from seeing him, Alison had her first experiences with storytelling and acting as she evaded peoples’ questions about her father’s eccentric city life. It was a time when LGBTQ people and issues were far more closeted. These early experiences filled her with the burning desire to create art and led her to pursue a theater career. Alison left home at seventeen and spent the next twelve years traveling and studying across the world.
In 2013 Alison told the Toronto Star that her story is “not just about having a gay father.” Instead, Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter is about learning “what happens when someone in your life is not the person you thought they were,” and more importantly, asking “how do we embrace that and accept them and grow through that?”
Family Equality Council’s Outspoken Generation® Program bolsters the children of LGBTQ parents and gives its young advocates a greater ability to share their vital stories and help create family equality not only legally, but in society at large.
“We are delighted to welcome Alison Wearing join to our Outspoken Generation® Program,” said Family Equality’s Executive Director, Gabriel Blau. “For decades we have been giving our children a platform to tell their truths. Now, adult children of LGBTQ parents, like Alison, are breaking down biases about our families and moving the conversation forward about true family values.”
Brent Wright, Family Equality’s Director of Programs continued: “We are also thrilled to announce that Alison will be joining us for this year’s Family Week celebration, July 26th to August 2nd, in Provincetown, Massachusetts! LGBTQ parents and their families will have a chance to hear first-hand about Alison’s personal story of her love and acceptance of her father, discussing her book and how each of our own personal narratives can serve to move us that much closer to a world that respects and values all families.”
Alison’s first book was the travel memoir Honeymoon in Purdah: an Iranian Journey, which was released to worldwide acclaim in 2001. In 2011, Alison also created and starred in the one-woman show Give Into Light, winner of the coveted Best Of Fest Award at Wakefield Fringe Festival in Quebec, Canada. Her most recent project, Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter, debuted in 2013 as both a memoir and performance art piece to rave reviews.
The Outspoken Generation® program is co-chaired by Ella Robinson, daughter of the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, and internationally-recognized LGBTQ activist, Zach Wahls. Outspoken Generation® stories were used in Voices of Children, an amicus brief filed for the DOMA and Prop 8 cases; this brief was a key to victory in the US Supreme Court. Family Equality Council® recently filed a similar brief in Utah and Virginia’s marriage equality cases, now pending in federal court.
For more information about the Outspoken Generation® Program, visit: www.familyequality.org/outspoken.
For more information about Family Week, visit: www.familyequality.org/familyweek.
Learn more about Alison Wearing in this Toronto Star interview: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/05/09/confessions_of_a_fairys_daughter_by_alison_wearing_interview.html
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About Family Equality Council®: Family Equality Council® connects, supports, and represents the three million parents who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer in this country today and their six million children of all ages. We are changing attitudes and policies to ensure that all families are respected, loved, and celebrated—including families with parents who are LGBTQ. We are a community of parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren that reaches across this country. For over 30 years we have raised our children and raised our voices toward fairness for all families.
Contact: Cindi Creager, CreagerCole Communications
(646) 279-4559, cindi@creagercole.com